Love to Gabi from Chad
by AnOxymoron
Summary: Ever wondered what happened between HSM 1 and HSM 2? Here's the juicy drama that went on in those mysterious six months...Disclaimer: I don't own HSM1 or 2 and never will... Please Read and Review... Thanks!
1. 1 MAC N' CHEESE

MAC N' CHEESE

If she could get a genie and have three wishes at that very second, Gabi would've chosen that moment without a second thought. The night was _almost _perfect, but there were three things that would make it the most blissful memory she'd ever had.

Troy needed to kiss her… right then.

Troy needed to hold her hand… like in the old movies.

He simply _had_ to quit staring stupidly into space. I mean, if a guy's nervous, okay, but he was clearly stalling way too long.

"Troy?" she said quietly, wishing she had some generous fairy godmother. "Could you… hold my hand?"

He jumped a little. "Why?" he asked, looking thoroughly confused. He was so cute confused.

He was really cute, no matter what, even when he was stalling like he was then. His hair had darkened with age, and his voice had lowered, which made him seem a whole more mature than he had been when they'd first met. Back then, he seemed like just another boy. Now, he seemed like…

"Gabi?" he said, nudging her a little. "Why do you want me to hold your hand?"

_So we can have a romantic moment, you gormless twit. _"I – I'm going to, uh, lean over the edge of the hill," she said carefully, choosing her words gingerly. "So… I don't want to fall and get grass stains on my dress." She gestured at her cotton print summer dress, over which she'd labored painstakingly just the previous night, releasing the hem so it could cover her legs. She had taken herself to this task after Troy had revealed to her that he hated girls who showed too much skin.

He still looked clueless. She wanted to smack him upside, no matter how much she liked him. "Just hold my hand, okay?" she said, forcing a grin. Shrugging, he entwined his fingers loosely in hers. There were definitely sparks of chemistry, but they were ruined because he clearly wasn't into it. She sighed and pretended to retrieve something from the grass. _Three wishes…_

Troy was totally and utterly lost. He thought he'd done such a good job of planning. Since Gabi had said that she liked quiet romantic dates, he'd gone with his Dad's old dating motto: Keep It Simple, Stupid. KISS. He'd packed a dinner basket with cold macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, regular lettuce, tomatoes and feta cheese cooked in a knish, and homemade brownies for desert. There was also some yoghurt and small snacks Mrs. Bolton had thrown into the basket. It'd taken hours to get it ready, and Gabi seemed like she really liked it, but she was looking restless now, her eyes had a kind of dispassionate gleam, like something wasn't really satisfactory, but he couldn't figure it out _what_. He'd made several excuses to disappear into the portable john at the side of the park to which he'd taken her. He'd checked his fly, readjusted his shirt, gelled back his hair some more, even rinsed out his mouth in case he had icky residue stuck in his teeth.

He couldn't figure out what was wrong, and it was scaring him. Was she just bored of him? Was she going to move onto bigger and better things soon, maybe even break up with him tonight? Visions filled his head of her with another boyfriend, a senior in high school, someone who could meet her demands… someone more mature, maybe? Now she was holding onto his hand, hanging over the edge of the hill, which she'd been doing for a good two minutes. "What're you doing?" he tried to ask nonchalantly. She resurfaced, her face flushed rosily from being upside down. "Oh… I thought I dropped my ring… but I found it!" she exclaimed brightly, wiggling her fingers in his face to show the number of birthstone, promise, and inscription rings she'd donned.

"Oh." He was pretty sure she'd had all those rings on before she dunked down.

"Well… this is nice." She was fidgeting like crazy. Her hand was still in his, making him nervous. Really nervous – what did she want? Why was she holding his hand? If he could just find a way to surreptitiously check his breath. Maybe that was it!

"The spinach pasta salad was good," she said, in a way that made him pretty sure she was fishing for something to say.

Why couldn't girls ever be satisfied with silence? It seemed like they always needed to talk. Her chattiness was usually endearing, but right now he just needed a little time to think, space to figure out what he was doing wrong.

KISS. Simple, stupid, nothing to it – "How's school?" he blurted. Realizing the stupidity of what he'd just said, he resisted the urge to smack himself on the forehead.

"Uh…" Gabi looked at her lap, clearly understanding that Troy was just being idiotic.

KISS. He couldn't think of anything. God, why was it so complicated? _KISS…_

_KISS ME! _Gabi wanted to scream it at his bewildered face. How hard was it to pucker up and smooch? Sharpay was always kissing her boyfriends, all the time. The drama geeks, football players, and all the boys she attracted like magnets. If Sharpay Evans could do it, it was most definitely NOT rocket science.

Troy removed his hands from hers carefully. His palms were clammy and gross. She closed her eyes and begged for divine inspiration.

She turned towards him instinctively and placed her hands around his neck, entwining a few fingers in his luscious hair. "Troy," she said softly. She looked up, trying to look sappy, feeling like a dork. "Troy…"  
He looked seriously scared. What was she going to do now? She couldn't kiss him; that was tacky. The boy just _had _to kiss the girl. He just _had _to. At least, on the first kiss. Maybe later, like in marriage, the girl could make the move. But not till then, she had to wait for him to come to his non-existent senses.

"Gabi, everything okay?" he reached up a hand awkwardly and patted hers, the one in his hair.

"Troy," she said. "Um…"

"Gabi," he said, sounding like he wanted to say something. "I…"

Man, she was close. Close enough for him to smell her perfume, the scent of which had faded into the fresh night's air. He could smell the traces of it now, though, mixed with her apple shampoo. He loved how natural she was, that she didn't use all the hairsprays that the rest of the girls used, never wore the fancy bangles and jewelry and miniskirts that everyone else did. She was so much like herself, beautiful and clean and pure. Even without aid of processed products, she was gorgeous. Up close like this, he could see how smooth her skin was, peachy and rosy and glowing. What was she doing? He could feel her fingers tugging a little at her hair; it felt good, but it was strange. All of a sudden she was just on top of him. Even her legs were slowly moving over his. Why was she sitting on him? She looked just as scared and confused as he was. "Troy," she said, closing her eyes. She wasn't wearing any makeup, but her eyelashes looked longer than any of the girls who put the black gunk on their eyes.

"Gabi, what are you doing?"

"I don't know," she said truthfully, looking down. "I just… I really like you, Troy Bolton."

"I like you, Gabi Montez." He reached up and took her hands out of his hair, off his neck. "You can… just tell me what's going on, how's that?" he smiled, trying to look charming and suave, feeling like he was the stupidest guy on earth.

"You're my kindergarten buddy, Troy," she said quietly. "I feel like I've grown up with you. I really like you. Really, really like you. We've been dating for a while… since the winter musical… I mean, school is almost over, Troy, it's been like six months…"

He had no idea what she was getting at.

"I think we should have our first kiss," she said quickly, like she'd wanted to say it all night and was finally ready to let it out.

He was too shocked to speak for a second. Her hands were still resting in his, but it wasn't awkward like before, it was real and it felt good. "Kiss?" he said softly. She'd never come out with anything like that before, so bluntly. In fact, till then, he hadn't even realized that she was having those thoughts. Still, she was a girl, not some thoughtless alien. Much as he would've liked to think she just lived their relationship in the moment, it was Gabi, she always had a plan, and apparently her plan had been bottled up so long she was really eager tro get it out.

"Our first kiss, yeah." She scooted forward a little, towards him, as far forward as she could go without being pressed up uncomfortably against him. "Come on, Troy, I mean, just a quick thing. To show… we really like each other, you know?"

Suddenly he understood. She didn't want to _kiss. _It wasn't for the kissing she was asking. It was just that she thought everyone had to, to landmark their relationship, show they really cared about each other. Because even though they knew how much they liked each other, they needed proof to show to the world. It made sense, actually. That was Gabi. Sensible Gabi, loveable Gabi…

"Sure," he said, shifting his weight. "Let's do it. Just… to show, right?"

"Yeah, not to actually do it," she said, looking relieved. "Just a little, okay?" they were both cautious; he could sense that his feelings were shared. Neither was exactly convinced on the idea, but they'd already committed. He didn't even know how to go about kissing a girl.

Gabi's insides were squirming with excitement and trepidation. Her first kiss was coming on, full steam ahead, and she was eager and frightened. This would mark her becoming a real girl with a real boyfriend, and she felt like a snake shedding the skin of childhood years. She wanted to cling onto the skin as long as possible. She thought then, suddenly, what her mother would have to say about the whole thing, and her dad, somewhere in New York City, if he even cared which he probably didn't.

Then Taylor's face came up, like an annoying conscience bubble. "Just do it!" she could hear Taylor hissing, much like she'd hissed to Gabi at the scholastic decathlon when she'd frozen up. Just like with Troy, singing, just doing it, like she was a fearless five-year-old again.

"Shall we?" Troy said hesitantly. They leaned toward each other, close enough for their noses to barely touch. She looked at his eye – she could only see one eye, they were so close – and inhaled sharply, feeling claustrophobic. But if she drew back, she knew they'd never get around to it.

"OK," she more breathed than said. They leaned just a little bit closer, just enough. She squeezed her eyes shut and went forward, feeling like she was stepping off of a cliff. She felt Troy's body tense up; she jerked spastically, and then they both relaxed, synchronized, feeling like they were singing together again onstage at the callbacks – only, this time, it was completely nonverbal.


	2. 2 SECRETS

SECRETS

The hallways buzzed with news the next day at school. Gabi had told Tay, who'd told the entire science club, which got around to the drama club, which got around to the Wildcats, and then pretty soon everyone knew. They were seriously dating now.

Gabi and Troy went up to his rooftop garden at lunch break to get away from everyone's inquiries and evil stares. Sharpay had screamed for a good ten seconds in the school auditorium, so shrilly that even Mrs. Darbus was forced to tell her pet pupil to keep it down.

"Are you okay?" Troy asked Gabi as they swung up, braced against the rail posts of the staircase, and sat on the benches that overlooked the East High grounds and vicinity.

"I guess so," she said breathlessly. They had raced up as soon as the bell rang, both pining after an escape. They hadn't even discussed it… it was just sort of an unwritten agreement.

"Next," he said, panting, "We should get a Webcam and post videos of us together on the internet. Then, not only will the entire tenth grade know, so will the rest of the world, our parents, and my grandmother, who will knock my head off and then ship it to Peru to be made into a freaky voodoo sculpture!" he grinned.

Gabi had to laugh; he could always make her feel better with a well-timed joke. And it was very good timing.

The spider plants were swinging in the breeze; she walked over to one and gently pressed on the soil. Water came spurting up in puddles. "The science club's not doing a very good job of watering these."  
"Meaning you?" Troy joined her, standing directly behind her. They were so close he could've blown the pieces of lint on the back of her neck off if he'd wanted to.

"Actually, I don't take care of the plants," Gabi said defiantly, whirling around meaning to sass him, but finding him so close that she stumbled back in surprise. _Stupid Gabi, klutz… _scolding herself silently, she caught her balance and brushed it off with a teasing smile. "And the Wildcats aren't doing such a good job, I hear."

"From whom?" he cocked his hip and did his best at striking an offended, girly pose.

"Oh, I have my sources," she said airily, rolling her eyes and faking a brush-off.

He grabbed her and picked her up, spinning her around. Her giggles were probably loud enough to be heard in the cafeteria. The babbling that could be heard mutely from below ceased. Her eyes widened as he set her down gently. They exchanged curious looks. "Can they hear us?" Troy whispered.

She shrugged and crept down the steps, peering over the edge of the landing to see about all of East High staring up in wonderment, curiously questioning each other where the noise was coming from.

"We aren't very good at the whole "DL" thing," Gabi whisper-giggled.

Troy chuckled but tried to keep his voice down. "We're going to have to be late to class. We have to wait till everyone clears out the cafeteria, or else they'll know it was us."  
Gabi groaned. "Are you serious? Dang, if I'm late to science _again, _my butt's going to get kicked!"

"Excuse me? Is that proper language for a young lady?" he tousled her hair affectionately, like an older brother.

He looked really cute, standing in the sunlight, his Crest White Strip-teeth glinting. She felt herself blushing and tried to look away, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He looked amazing, in his Henley and jeans and…

"Hey, Bolton!" Chad Danforth was bolting up the steps, looking thoroughly shocked. Gabi backed up and then instinctively hid behind a large and ornate flowerpot before Chad could see her.

Troy whipped around, trying to look cool and collected, like he'd been alone the entire time. Smoothing back his hair suavely, he looked at Chad, cocking an eyebrow. Gabi stifled a laugh. He looked ridiculous now; he was such a bad liar.

"Is it true you kissed the Montez girl last night at Fairfield Park?" Chad said, cutting to the chase. "I mean, Tay and I haven't even kissed!"

"You should get around to it. It's… fun." Troy looked confused again, apparently wondering why he'd felt so compelled to say that. Gabi rolled her eyes. He was as endearing and cute as a puppy, but he was also just as clueless.

Chad punched him in the arm. "Don't be smart-alecky, captain. Just because you've kissed a girl doesn't make you experienced. Jason's snitched about a thousand chicks.

"Hey, don't talk like that, man," Troy said very seriously, his face losing its playful glint and becoming somber. Gabi was touched. She was the one who had told Troy she hated it when boys talked nonchalantly about "hooking up" with girls. It was tacky, cocky, and above all sexist.

Chad looked surprised. "What's wrong?"

"Girls have feelings, you know. And… they don't talk about us like we're possessions." Exactly, word for word, what Gabi had said to him… she mini-swooned behind the flowerpot. He was so sweet, even though he didn't know what was going on. At least he cared enough to enforce her beliefs. That was really nice, something nobody had ever really done for her before.

"OK, sorry," Chad said sassily in his best female voice. "Let's go down. Have you eaten lunch yet?"

"I – no, but-"

"C'mon! The Wildcat Captain can't go starving!" Chad gripped his arm tightly and dragged him down the steps. While Chad's back was turned, Troy shot an apologetic look in Gabi's direction. She rustled the plant a little to tell him she'd received his message.

It was better this way, actually. She didn't have to be late to science because she just had to wait a couple seconds and then go down. Nobody would notice Chad and Troy entering the cafeteria together, and they certainly wouldn't notice Gabriella Montez entering alone.

Troy let Chad drag him around the school, first to the unofficial Wildcat lunch table and then to class. He didn't catch up with Gabi until after school. He didn't want to jeopardize his friendship with Chad by ditching him, which he knew wouldn't go over especially after he'd chewed him out about talking about girls the wrong way. When he saw Gabi emerge from the doors a few minutes after he had, he ran to join her. She grinned when she saw him. He swept down to kiss the top of her head, shivering as he did so. He'd pulled it off nicely; like it was something he did every– BAM. Gabi burst out laughing hysterically as he ran headfirst into a streetlight mid-thought. He'd been focusing on her face, rejuvenated by the burst of chilly fresh air, and had run right into the freaking pole. Ruby red and hot to the touch, he got up and bowed comically. "Just call me Troy Klutz Bolton."

"Will do," she said, fumbling in her book bag for a calculator or something. "Hey, my mom's not going to be around for a while, so I'm just going to sit on a bench and polish off the geometry HW, want to come?"

"I'm hitching a ride with Chad," Troy said, hating himself for turning down the opportunity to spend time with her. "I'm so sorry, Gab. I can cancel it if you'd like…"

"Nah, it's fine," she said, waving a hand, clearly undisturbed. She didn't care. She had so many other things to do besides worry about measly little him, unimportant to her…

He stopped himself in the middle of that depressing revelation.

"Won't you be lonely?" he asked, trying to get her to be needy.

"No, Tay will be with me anyhow. Go on ahead," she said, not even removing her gaze from the book bag but managing to smoothly steer herself around the same streetlight that had been Troy's downfall.

"Sorry, Gabi," he said truthfully.

"No harm," she said, looking alarmed at how apologetic he was. "Forget it, Troy. It's not a big deal!" she pecked his cheek. His entire face burned anew, a burning that felt much better than his humiliation at having been run over by a thin rod of iron with a bulb attached to the top.

"So, come over to my house around eight?" he followed her to the bench, sitting down casually next to her as she cracked open the stack of textbooks she'd set down on her other side.

She gave him the "Gabi look", which usually meant he'd said something stupid. "You know it's a school night, Troy. How can I go over to your house on a _Monday _night?"

He whined. "Can't Taylor do your homework?"

She smacked him, not playfully, but with as much strength as she could muster (which, fortunately, wasn't much). "I am so not passing off homework. Maybe that's what all those people loaded with extracurricular activities do, but that's not like me. You know it. Now shut up and let me concentrate."

It was a cold day, and pretty soon Gabi was snuggling up against him for extra warmth. It took him several minutes to work up the courage to put his arm around her, but she didn't even seem to notice when he did, she was so consumed with her algebraic whatsits.

"I wonder where Tay is," she said after a couple of minutes beneath Troy's arm. She was really warm now; curled up perfectly against the hollow of his side. "She said she'd meet me."

"Plans change," he shrugged. "Maybe Chad waylaid her into his car or something to go on a drive-around of Albuquerque."

Another "Gabi look", and then – "Taylor never forgets or breaks her appointments. That's why I love her so much."

"The same can't be said for Chad," Troy said, "But I love him anyway."

Gabi cooed. "Aw, the little basketball star loves his bestest friend? That's so cute!"

Troy hit her really gently, afraid of hurting her. "You know what I mean, you stupid little genius."

She put a hand on his chest and pushed against him, using him as a brace and stretching up to whisper in his ear. "I can come over to your house at six, if you want."

He looked down at her and grinned.

She was still stretching up, so their faces were touching again, and Troy realized with a jolt of electrifying fear that they were in the perfect position to kiss… again.

Apparently Gabi had noticed too, because she was searching wildly for something to say; her lips were twitching and her eyes were roving his face.

He was getting cross-eyed, staring at her at such a small distance. Finally, he lunged forward, throwing self preservation to the winds.

The second kiss was much better, albeit shorter. They weren't as nervous, but it only lasted a couple of seconds. Perhaps it would've lasted longer, except for the interruption that came in the form of a squeaky gasp – "Gabi?"

It was Taylor, looking completely bewildered, clutching onto her wheeling backpack with one hand and holding down her skirt against the wind with the other. "So you actually did kiss him!" Taylor exclaimed. "I thought you were joking for a while! Chad and I haven't even kissed yet!"

Gabi grinned secretively at Troy. "You should get around to it," she said in a fairly good imitation of his voice. "It's fun."

Taylor shot her an evil look. "Don't go shooting your suave voice at me, young lady. I want to hear all the details." She cast Troy a look that pretty much said "Get out of here now, bub".

He ruffled Gabi's hair like he had on the rooftop garden. He felt her shiver a little at his touch; he did, too, realizing how much he liked the scent of her hair. It was really, really nice…  
"Six, Gabi," he said, trying to wink. It was one of the pickup moves he'd never really gotten around to learning. Coach Bolton was a master of winking and arching his eyebrows and doing all the debonair things that made him look like a player, but Troy had always been stuck being the geeky son of the playboy coach.

She laughed at his meager attempt. "Don't stress yourself, buddy boy." She kicked the back of his leg, urging him to move on. He grinned, pleased at her playfulness, and kicked back. Taylor sat down in his spot and kicked him – really, really hard, enough to make him scamper away, waving at Gabi the entire time. The honking of Coach Bolton's horn became audible all over the grounds of East High School.

Taylor and Gabi gossiped the entire time on the bench; she barely even got any homework done. Which was why, when she punctually showed up at Troy's door, she lugged with her all of her books and texts.

Mrs. Bolton came to the door, wielding a hoard of shopping bags like she'd just gotten in from the grocery market. "Gabriella," she said warmly, and then, in a much less hospitable tone, yelled up the stairs, "TROY! GABRIELLA IS HERE!"

In a few seconds, the sound of a door flying open and then slamming shut came, followed by the pounding of feet down stairs. Troy showed up, panting, just as Gabi closed the door behind her and took off her shoes.

Troy was a mess. He was wearing an overly large basketball jersey and a backwards Chicago Sox cap. Or, White Sox – or something. Gabi had never really understood all the baseball teams. Or was that football?

Besides the jersey and cap, he was wearing a pair of too-tight bright orange corduroy pants, and a whole set of ornate jewelry, some fake purple bead necklaces and a china choker.

"What are you wearing?" she asked uncertainly, checking her watch. "I came exactly at six. Didn't you have time to stop your alien and terrifying regular proceedings and make yourself into a normal boy?"

"Not boy, man," Troy said in a voice that was much deeper than his own. He slicked back his hair like someone trying to pick up a girl in an old movie.

"Not working for me, sweetie," she said, shaking her head as she whipped the cap off his head. Eyeing the jewelry, she said in a voice that suggested being nauseous, "I can leave, you know."

"No, it's fine! Just come on up to my room, I have an old friend I want you to meet," Troy said, grinning.

At that precise moment, a voice started yelling from upstairs – "TROY! WHO'S AT THE DOOR?"  
Troy winced at Gabi's confused expression. "Ok, before you ask any questions, I don't have a clock in my room – my regular's broken – so I lost track of time, and…"

Chad Danforth – _the _Chad Danforth – came racing out onto the landing, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Gabriella. He was wearing clothes twice as hideous as Troy's – purple Juicy Couture sweatpants and a Victoria's Secret sweater, unzipped to show a bare chest on which he'd Sharpie-written TAYLOR MCKESSIE IS MY GAL. He had braided his afro with pink strings and tied it together with pink and purple beads. He looked like a four-year-old little girl in a sixteen-year-old boy's body. He was also wearing a large amount of gold necklaces and chains, all with crosses or obscenities attached at the end in gold letters. "Whoa," he said, skidding to a halt. "You didn't tell me _she _was coming!"

Gabi, deciding to have some fun, said, "Taylor's coming in too, she's just getting all her things out of the car."

At this proclamation, Chad didn't waste a single second in tearing his braids out ripping the jacket off, furiously rubbing at the Sharpie tattoo.

"Relax," Gabriella laughed with Troy. "I was joking!"  
Chad stopped abruptly, looking perfectly ridiculous – half his braids were out, and he was standing bare-chested with black ink smudged all over his body.

"Man that was not funny!" Chad exclaimed at Troy. "Dang, I ripped out like all of my hair."  
Troy shrugged noncommittally, his entire body shaking with suppressed laughter. When he spoke, his voice was full of involuntary snorts and guffaws. "That's a sweet tattoo, Chad. You ought to keep it."  
Chad lunged down the stairs in a couple of wide-strewn steps and started smacking Troy out. Troy responded in kind; they tussled until Gabi reminded them of her presence by clearing her throat.

"Were you guys playing dress up?" she demanded as they backed away from each other.

"No," they said in unison.

"Then why are you in drag and all that… stuff?"

They looked at each other, clearly searching for an answer.

Gabi rolled her eyes. "You WERE playing dress up, Troy Bolton. Don't you lie to me!"

Troy crossed his feet and looked down like some hyperactive schoolboy. "Sowwy, Mith Dawbuth," he said with a badly mocked lisp.

She smacked his wrist in the role of the schoolteacher. Chad burst out laughing.

"You are whipped, Bolton," he said as Troy started blushing fervently.

"Shut up, Chad." Gabi aimed a well-directed kick at Chad's shin. He howled in pain.

"Of all girls, you pick the master of mortal combat!" he hopped up the stairs.

Gabi looked at Troy a little uncertainly. "So…"

To Chad, it was still unbelievable. After the winter musical and all the stuff Gabi and Troy had done to stay together, it was pretty obvious that they really liked each other. But he was starting to think it had a whole lot more than liking.

He blushed whenever he talked to her, he fidgeted in her presence, he hadn't even retorted when he was accused of being whipped. It was Troy Bolton, and he was completely and totally not acting like himself.

She was a pretty girl. She was a really pretty girl, and she was really smart, but she didn't seem worth as much as Troy had given for her. And since meeting her, Troy's life was all about Gabi. Not to mention that while Chad and Troy discussed summer jobs, a wide range of things were ruled out because Troy just absolutely _had_ to be with Gabi, no matter what. The numerous times Chad had attempted to suggest the possibility of separation, he'd gotten shot down before he could utter more than two words. It was always the same thing – "I can't lose her again." And then, Chad – "You won't lose her just by being away from her for a couple of months!" which was always coupled with, "Yes, I will, because she'll meet someone else."

Troy's paranoia worried Chad, but more than that, the possibility of Troy becoming a total drama geek and forgetting about basketball. Troy was destined for great things, and Chad would hate to watch him dwindled into another Ryan Evans.

This and a bunch of other things prevented Chad from sleeping the night Gabi had caught him and Troy playing Drag Queen Dress-up, a game which they played when they were totally bored and feeling like acting like total idiots.

He was also thinking about Taylor. They had discussed it a while, about how they were worried that their best friends were so taken with each other it was like nothing else mattered. They were lucky nothing serious had happened yet – Troy wasn't playing badly, Gabi's grades hadn't slipped at all – but both were convinced that pretty soon the symptoms were going to show.

Finally, completely certain that he had no chance of resting that night, Chad flicked on the lights. The clock on his nightstand read 3:14 AM.

Groaning a little, he blindly rummaged around in his drawers and found what he was looking for – the East High School yearbook, 06-07. It had come out a couple of days ago, but he'd already gotten all the signatures he needed or wanted. He hated cramming the yearbook full of empty words from people he hardly even knew.

The front page was full of his favorite people: Zeke, Troy, Jason, Kelsi, Taylor, and Sharpay and Ryan, only because Sharpay had forced her signature onto the front page. He grinned looking at their messages –

_Thanks for everything this year – you really came through for me. –T.B. _

_I liked getting to know you this year, Chad; you're a great guy and an amazing player. –Kelsi ___

**Thanks for forgiving me for being a baker. You're cool, Chad. –Zeke **

_Oh my god, Chad, you're such an awesome guy! (GIGGLES!) I hope you come back next year, I really like you and Troy. Tell Troy I give him much love! S.E. _

See you next year. R.E.

All the people he loved so dearly (except for the Evans siblings). Troy hadn't known what to say, so he'd copied a little bit of what Gabi had written in _his _yearbook. Gabi hadn't signed because Chad really hadn't talked to her, even though he was dating her best friend, and she was dating his.

He was pretty sure Sharpay had only signed as part of some ludicrous way to get Troy. Ryan had just signed because Sharpay told him to, and Ryan was pretty much his sister's poodle.

He heard the lights click on in the hallway and slowly crept out of bed, opening his door a little crack to see what was going on.

It was his older sister, Harriet. She was hugging a couple bottles of soda and a bag of pita chips to her chest as she tried to silently make her way back to her bedroom.

Harriet was visiting from college. She was nineteen and fairly nice to Chad when she wanted to be. When she didn't, Chad wished he could throw her all the way across the state back into Albuquerque U.

"Hey. Psst, Harry!" Chad hissed at her out of the crack in his door.

She looked around, startled, and almost dropped her bag of chips.

"Oh," she breathed, looking relieved. "It's just you, buggy. What's up?"

He shrugged, trying to look undisturbed. "Can't sleep's up. What're you doing with Snack World in your hands?"

She tried to hit him, but in doing so let go of a soda bottle and just barely managed to save it from falling on the floor and making a ruckus. Sighing a little and rolling her eyes, she replied, "Because I'm a girl, and girls get cravings. Nothing you athletes would understand. You eat three meals a day, during which you stuff your face with everything in sight, and then you sleep – and SNORE – without a second thought to food."

Chad rolled his eyes back, the visions of tossing her through a wind at the university coming back to him. "I need some help, Harry," he said.

"Don't call me that," she shot back, but followed him into his room anyway.

They sat on his bed; Harriet dumped the contents of her arms onto the bed. "Help yourself, I got way too much," she said, cracking open the chips and munching noisily on one.

"Hey, quiet, I don't want to wake up Mom and Dad," Chad whispered. "Ok, you know Troy?"

"Cute sophomore - your best buddy?"

"Yeah, him," Chad said, ignoring the "Cute" quip. "I'm worried for him."

Gulping down half a bottle of soda, she eyed him suspiciously. "Why? He's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"He's, like in love with Gabi," Chad said, cracking his knuckles anxiously. "He always talks about her, he can't stop thinking about her, he even told me he's going crazy over her. Does that sound normal to you?"

"It sounds sweet," Harriet said stoutly. "Nothing wrong with being in love, you should know that. Don't you love Taylor?"

He looked at the print on his bed sheets. "I guess. Kind of – I don't know, I just like her, we have fun together! How can I know if I love her or not?"

"Because, you're supposed to know," Harriet answered readily. "I don't know, I've never been in love. Boys have loved me, but I kind of figured it was too early, like you. Now I don't know so much, because I really did like some of those boys, I just got scared and turned away when they got too serious. Maybe Troy's just really lucky to find a girl who's not scared by his passion."

Chad groaned. "Don't get sappy, sis. We're only sophomores. It's not like we can, I don't know, whip a girl on a horse and ride into the sunset."

"I'm not talking like _Gone with the Wind _love," Harriet said in the smart-alecky voice that Chad _**hated. **_

"I'm so not retarded!" Chad barked. "I just… I've never seen him like this. It's like he loves her more than hoops."

"You can't expect him to marry a net and an orange ball, can you? He needs a girl; he needs something more than objects. Don't you, too? Just think of the future."

"Gabi isn't worth it!" Chad said furiously. "I mean, she's such a pretty girl and all, but she's just that, a girl, it's not like she's something extraordinary!"

"You don't really sound scared for Troy," Harriet said in a tone so serious that Chad actually listened for once. "You sound like you're jealous, buggy. You need to figure it out; otherwise you'll end up like me and my ex-best friends. All of them could've been retained but I just didn't want to do it. I don't want you to lose Troy, because you've been together since preschool."

"He's brushing me off for her," Chad said, fighting back the urge to slap Harriet. She was right, but he hated her for saying it to his face. "But I'm not jealous. I think he should rethink, that's all. He's deciding the rest of his life. He's choosing a girl over his career."  
"Basketball has a shelf life. Love doesn't." Harriet was getting philosophical, which meant it was time for her to turn in. She knew it, too. "Night, buggy," she said, tousling his hair. "Don't get bed bugs. They come to _jeealouus_ best friends." She emphasized "jealous."

"Shut up. Go away," Chad said, grinning even as he said it. She disappeared into her own room. He heard the hallway lights clicking off and her door opening and closing.

She had said he was jealous.

That ticked him off, but she was right, and he had to acknowledge it. Much as he liked hanging around Tay, with her it was all homework. No more hoops, no more shakes at the Waban Diner, and obviously, Taylor would never check out girls with him. She didn't even check out _guys. _She didn't wear lip gloss, she didn't giggle… she was as good as a guy and a boring guy at that. When she was in the mood she was great, but she was rarely in the mood. Troy had so much fun with Gabi because she was willing to _give a little. _

He had nicked a couple of Harriet's sleeping pills a few days ago. He just remembered them as he was thinking about all the things Troy talked about that he and Gabi did together.

Searching his sock drawer for the capsule that he'd hidden them in, he recalled that Gabi was fun with anyone, once you convinced her to be. He'd watched Zeke practically yank her textbooks out of her hands so they could take a spin around the dance floor at the cast party of the musical. And she'd been laughing and looked really pretty and had so much fun. The entire time they were there, Taylor was wrapped up in some book called Withering Heights or something. She paid no mind to the party or that Chad was practically on his knees begging her to dance with him.

She'd been fine while they were plotting and planning together, but after they'd fixed the destruction of Gabi and Troy's relationship, she'd kind of drifted apart. And when he'd asked her out after the game, he was euphoric on winning and hadn't even remembered all the stuff he doubted until a while after…

She wasn't boring. Not all the time, anyway. But he wished that he could find someone like Troy had, who he had so much in common with. And he had the feeling sticking around Tay too long would result in him maturing way too fast. Even Troy, who was with someone who was only half as bad as Taylor, was starting to grow up a little too fast for Chad's liking, but Troy seemed to like it. Chad hated the idea of growing up too soon. Life was too short to take shortcuts, except when it came to homework and all the boring things that slowed it down.

He found the medicine. It was harmless OTC pills, which made them seem okay to take, even though the health teacher was always babbling about being careful around drugs, any kind of drugs. He took one with a glass of water sitting on his nightstand and laid back, still thinking about Gabi. She was such a great girl for Troy, maybe for any guy. She was her own person, but she was also willing to give in a little, try new things. Taylor was stuck in a rut of good grades and little else.

He was seized with the insane urge to call Taylor and talk things over, but she'd never forgive him for waking her up so late on a school night. Even though, he thought bitterly, Troy called Gabi plenty of times in the middle of the night and Troy had said those were some of their best conversations ever.

The clock read 3:45. It had already been a half hour.

Harry was right; it was good to be in love. At least, it looked like it could be nice, having something to think about all the time, caring that much about someone. He wanted to be in love too. But he guessed it wasn't something you could force, wasn't something you could make yourself do.

He hadn't talked that much to Gabriella, but she seemed like the easygoing kind of girl someone could fall in love with without even realizing it. Sweet, smart, kind, generous, really, really cute. And she wasn't one of the girls who tried too hard or did too much like Sharpay. She wasn't as conservative as Tay but she wasn't as flashy as anyone else at East High. She was in the middle, which seemed like a good place to be.

He wished he could get to know her better, considered even asking her to have a cup of coffee with him or something. Weren't best friends supposed to know each others girlfriends well? Troy knew Taylor pretty well, but Troy knew everyone pretty well – conversations came easily to him. It took Chad months to work up the courage to talk to anyone.

Asking Gabi to sign his yearbook would be a good ruse, he decided. Just a chance to spark a little chat, if nothing else, though he seriously doubted it wouldn't be enjoyable, seeing as Troy was always talking about how humorous Gabi was, how thoughtful, how…

The sleeping pills were really starting to have an affect on him. He rolled over and closed his eyes, thinking of how pretty Gabi's face looked when she smiled. Fleetingly, under the heavy trance of the pills, he wondered if he was jealous of Gabi or Troy… or both…

Gabi couldn't sleep. Images of Troy and Chad playing dress-up – disturbing but humorous images – kept popping up in her head. Finally, she went downstairs and had a glass of water and a handful of Chex mix. Nothing like a fatty late night snack to get one sleepy.

After a little while of staring at her glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars, she decided to seek revenge towards Troy after all the times he'd woken her up, especially the nights before big tests.

Rather sleepily, she picked up her cell phone and dialed in his number. It took a couple of tries to get it right; she could barely see the keys.

"Hey, you've reached the voicemail box of Troy Bolton. Leave a message or don't, I don't really care. 'Kay, bye," his voice filled her ear. Sighing a little impatiently, she left a few messages and then flipped her phone shut, searching her bedroom for other things to make her feel tired.

Her yearbook was sitting on her dresser, gleaming in the dark because of its white cover.

She got up and padded across the room, sitting on the dresser counter and cracking open the yearbook. The front page was covered in the signatures of the entire Wildcats basketball team, including Troy, whose signature covered up half the page in his cramped, tiny handwriting. Kelsi, Jason, and Martha had also signed it. She grinned at Kelsi's signature; she always seemed so shy and reserved, but she showed her outgoing side in her songs and her signature; big loopy letters that stood out against everyone else's messy, small names.

Jason's message was probably the shortest on the page, they had barely talked. Chad wasn't even on there, which she found strange sometimes. Somehow, she'd never gotten to talking to Chad very much. He was always with Tay when she was with Troy, and the only time she'd ever get to talk to Chad was when she was with Troy.

Zeke had scribbled all over the official autograph section, listing his favorite baking recipes. He'd done this for everyone, which had been accomplished by taking all the yearbooks overnight to get it done.

She thought about Chad. She really should've asked him to sign, but he hadn't asked her and she felt strange just going up to him. Maybe he didn't like her; after all, he was the one who had encouraged Taylor to break her and Troy up before the musical.

She was already starting to feel sleepy. Closing the book and letting it fall quietly to the fluffy carpet, she sank into her bed and had dozed off in seconds.


	3. 3 CHAD

CHAD

Troy was a few seconds late to the bus stop. Usually Gabi and he usually got there at exactly the same time, 6:30 on Monday and Thursday mornings, when they had Phys Ed, and 7:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

When he got there, Kelsi had already come early, and she and Gabi were sitting on the bench talking animatedly. Gabi looked up and grinned when she saw Troy racing towards them. "Hey, slick!" she called delightedly. Kelsi turned and laughed at him.

"Alarm… didn't… go… off," he gasped when he reached them, plopping down next to Kelsi.

"Which is why your hair isn't done and you're wearing your pajama shirt?" Gabi hid a giggle behind the collar of her mini jacket.

He looked down and groaned. He had managed to put on jeans in his half-awake state, but he had forgotten the shirt. He was still wearing his Power Rangers tee, which looked completely ridiculous and very immature.

Kelsi patted his head. "It's okay, Spiky. We'll comb you out when we get to school."

"I can't get on the bus like this!" he glared at the pair of them, who were clearly practically suffocating themselves not to start howling with amusement. "You know that, Kelsi! If Chad sees me… can't you fix it?" he pleaded.

Kelsi and Gabi exchanged devilish looks.

"Don't make me get on my knees," he said warningly. He would've, but they were in a kind mood.

"Well, we can't fix your shirt," Gabi said in a condescending voice. "Because, you know, we can't do magic."

"Shut up," Troy snapped. "Just fix it, okay?" Seeing their reprimanding glowers, he added in a sugary voice, "Please?"

"Should we torture him, Kelsi?" Gabi said in her best evil tone.

Kelsi shrugged. "Your call, Gab. He snapped at you, so I think we could have some fun with this."

"PLEASE!" Troy shouted at the heavens. "Just fix it and I'll do anything you want, okay? Hurry, the bus will be here soon."

Kelsi started combing his hair out with a portable brush she had in her purse, and Gabi was retying his shoelaces, which he had done with the skill of a two-year-old.

When they were finished, he was desperately hoping he looked more presentable. Gabi took out a portable bottle of Scope mouthwash.

"You carry mouthwash around in your backpack?" Troy exclaimed when he saw it.

She shrugged. "I hate bad breath. Rinse with your gym water bottle."

He did as she told him, only because he didn't want them to be too mean to him. "Better?"

Kelsi got up and started slicking his hair back with gobs of a fruity-smelling gel.

"EW, get that away from me!" Troy yelped, jumping back.

"Well, it's not staying down and it'll get frizzy!" Kelsi shouted back at him, chasing him down and attacking him with the gel again.

"Can you do anything about the shirt?" Troy whined, pointing at his chest. "Please, Gabi. I'll do anything!"

"Can you set me up with Brad Pitt?" she challenged menacingly.

"Well, no. I'm the jealous type," he said, crossing his arms and pouting.

Kelsi rolled her eyes. "How about this, Troy – before anyone else at school sees you, we'll get Chad to give you one of his extra tees. Taylor told me he keeps a couple, because apparently, he's a closet stain-phobic."

Troy shrugged. "That's okay, I guess, but I still have to go on the bus. I can't change on the bus, Mrs. Perkins will freak."

"Well, nobody else besides the people riding on the bus will see you," Kelsi retorted. "Unless you'd rather the whole school see you?"

"OK, OK, I give."

"Here, let me just do something with his hair. It looks greasy." Giggling a little, Gabi stood on tip toe and started messing with his bangs.

Chad saw Gabi standing over Troy before they could pull apart. He watched as she teased him, racing after him when he tried to run away. They fell down the bank hill and stood up, looking like they were having the time of their lives. Kelsi was doubled up next to them, but that wasn't what Chad was looking at. Troy looked so happy, happier than he ever did when he was around the boys, like Gabi was some kind of anti-depressant.

Jason's arm reached across Chad, pointing out Troy. "What the heck is he wearing? _Power Rangers – _is he like, loony or something?"

Chad smacked Jason's arm away. "Watch it, dude. I can't breathe in small spaces."

"It's called claustrophobic," Tay corrected him, breathing down his neck.

He rolled his eyes when everyone had turned away from him to look at Troy's fascinatingly out-of-character getup. He hated how Taylor was always acting like some sort of perpetual teacher. She was definitely going to become another Mrs. Darbus when she grew up.

Troy got on the bus with an expression on his face that suggested he knew that everyone was staring at him. Gabi and Kelsi looked like they were about to burst.

"Troy," Zeke called from next to Taylor. "What's up with the-"

"I got up late," Troy barked at the entire bus. "So just shut your traps." He was in an extremely foul mood because Gabi and Kelsi had threatened to never let him forget about the incident unless he let them take him to a hair salon.

"Excuse me, Mr. Cranky," Taylor said loudly. "Zeke was just asking a question."

Ignoring her, Troy slid into a seat and crossed his legs, looking very angry at the world.

Kelsi was the one to lean across Jason and whisper to Chad about the shirt; Gabi went directly to sit next to Troy and started whispering to him, apparently comforting him, because Troy looked like he was starting to relax and was smiling a little. What was Gabi saying to him to make him feel so much better? Taylor never made Chad feel like that.

The bus screeched to a halt in front of East High and all the students filed off. Troy lingered behind to catch up with Chad. "So how about that shirt?" he whispered.

Chad nodded. "Hang on. Wait till everyone gets off."  
When the bus was empty and Mrs. Perkins had gotten off to get her usual cup of coffee before parking the bus, Chad reached his hand stealthily into his gym bag and pulled out a green shirt that read something about the Lady Lovers, an ancient rock band. "Take it," he hissed, poking Troy in the side.

"Hey, man, it's not like you're selling drugs or something," Troy said, stifling a chuckle at Chad's secrecy.

"Well, yeah, I know that, but I can't let anyone know about my stain-phobia, okay? It's just…" Chad sniffed a little and shrugged minutely.

"Not like you?" Troy finished heavily.

"I still haven't quite gotten over Zeke's baking fetish," Chad said quietly. "Keep it quiet, okay? Now go change, you look ridiculous."

Troy clapped Chad on the back and hurried off the bus. Chad lingered behind; thinking about the way Troy's face had lighted up when Gabi started talking to him.

The gang went to Happy Wok Order to celebrate everyone passing the extremely difficult geometry test that day. Gabi and Troy sat grouped closely together, Gabi even sitting on top of Troy at times. Chad, completely uninterested by his mandarin orange chicken, watched them carefully. He was half hoping to pick up tips to use on Tay, but mostly because he found it intriguing to watch the effect Gabi had over Troy. It was like a trance, like she was a magical temptress.

She was so pretty. He'd never really looked at her before, but when he did he could totally see what Troy had seen in her. She was a great person, charitable and sweet. Her laugh was like music. Troy was lucky.

Tay was talking to Kelsi the whole time, sometimes mocking Troy about the shirt fiasco of the morning. Chad listened halfheartedly, watching as Gabi whispered in Troy's ear the entire time, making him squirm and blush and look like the pretty mama's boy Chad had never thought him to be.

"Hey, check it out," Jason said during a lull in the conversation and laughter. "My uncle has Kobe Bryant's autograph. I won it off of him in a game of cards."

There was a great amount of hubbub, people snatching at the autograph and holding it like it was a piece of gold.

"Sweet," Chad said noncommittally as he held the signature in its circulation passage. Gabi giggled when she saw it.

"He has girly handwriting," she observed.

Jason snorted. "So? He's a world class basketball player. I could totally ask my uncle to hook me up!"  
Kelsi giggled and blushed. So soon she and Jason, too, would find the thing that Chad envied the most. What next? Zeke and Martha – well, they had been making eyes at each other.

Without realizing it, Chad put his head on the table in frustration. It was way too complicated. WAYY too complicated. To top things off, Gabi and Troy were now locked in a passionate and all too loving kiss. _Love… Jealousy… _his conversation with Harriet came back to him.

"Are you okay, Chad?" Tay lay a caring hand on his back.

A bit defiantly, he snapped at his conscience, See? I have a girl, too. She cares about me and loves me. _But you don't love her, _the annoying, nagging voice replied.

And Taylor didn't love him. She didn't do half the things Gabi did, didn't conform for him at all, and treated him like someone unworthy of putting a textbook down for more than two seconds.

"I'm okay, Tay-Tay," he said affectionately. "Just… go back on to your reading."

She looked confused at his bitterness and his comment. "I'm not reading, Chad. Are you sure you're fine?" she touched his forehead. "You seem okay. Maybe you have a delirious fever."

"I'm fine," Chad said angrily.

Taylor drew back, looking alarmed.

"Sorry, baby," he said quietly, kissing her forehead. "I'm tired."

She grinned at him warmly. "I knew that." She turned back to the conversation, which was a slur fest of Phys Ed.

"And Mrs. Darbus," Troy was saying, "Is just cocky. And nutty, too…."

"Totally," Kelsi jumped in. "And Sharpay is just like her total pet."

"Ryan is Sharpay's pet," Zeke howled in amusement. Martha was batting her eyelashes at him…

Chad inadvertently shook his head. In his despair over his seemingly perfect relationship with Tay, he was seeing love everywhere. Martha probably just had something stuck in her eye. After all, Martha and Zeke – not a good couple, it just didn't seem right.

Troy was looking at him concernedly. Gabi was whispering something in his ear yet AGAIN, something that made Troy turn all pink and rosy and whisper something back smilingly. They were absorbed in each other, totally satisfied with each other.

Chad groaned and slid down in his seat. It was set to be a long night.

Gabi talked on the phone with Troy for an hour after she got back from Happy Wok Order. Troy was discussing how worried he was about Chad.

"He's not himself. I mean, today, when we were talking about his stain-phobia, he didn't make one joke. He was so serious about it."

She'd tried comforting him – "Closet phobia can be a pretty serious thing, it might just be a one-time deal", which didn't help, and then advice… "Take him to a counselor or something? He could be showing early signs of OCD." But nothing could ease Troy's nerves, and they ended on a dull note. Troy only said something nice to her once, the rest of the time he was mulling everything over out loud. "I mean, can't Taylor do anything? You make me so happy [the nice thing, even though he hadn't meant it as a compliment but Tay can't do anything for him. It's almost like he looks sadder when he's with her. Do you get that? I don't. I don't get any of it."

By the time they'd hung out, Gabi was starting to rather dislike Chad Danforth.

Troy was pacing. This meant something was seriously wrong, because Troy _never_ paced. He wasn't a pacing kind of guy. If he was worried, he'd sit on his bed with his hands in his hair, or his grades would start slipping, or he'd go out to the court at the back of his house and shoot a couple of hoops, though he usually missed them. But today was serious, because he was pacing. And Coach Bolton could recognize the symptoms.

"What's up, buddy?" he walked over to Troy, clapping him on the back. "What's wrong?"

"Chad," Troy said immediately, eager to have someone to talk to.

The two sat down across from each other at the breakfast table. "Shoot," Coach Bolton said, looking concerned. If a guy on his team wasn't doing so well, he liked to know about it.

"He's acting so strange. I was telling Gab, she noticed too. Tonight when we went out to eat, he just kind of stared at me and Gabi for like the entire time. Jason's uncle has an autograph of Kobe Bryant and Jason nicked it, and Chad didn't even seem excited! Then when Tay started acting worried he totally snapped at her. I have no idea what's wrong, and he's scaring me."

"He's been doing pretty well in practice," Troy's dad said reasonably. "I mean, he seems very happy."

"That's basketball. Chad lives and breathes basketball," Troy shot back. "He'll never be like me, he'll never go off singing and dancing and doing all the things he never thought he'd do. Basketball is so Chad. They should get married."

"What do the other Wildcats think of this?"

"I don't know, haven't really talked to them. But Gabi definitely thinks-"

"Troy," Mr. Bolton said as gently as he could, "Gabriella is not a Wildcat. She doesn't even know Chad that well, from what you've told me."

Troy shrugged. "I guess you're right, dad, but I don't want to sound like a pussycat or something, or like a sappy girl."

"It's not sappy to care about a teammate. That's called teamwork." Mr. Bolton stood up and left.

Harriet left the next day. Chad hadn't even gotten a chance to talk to her anymore about girls and Gabi and Taylor. She left without even looking a second time at him. She was happy to go back to college.

He called Tay, but she didn't answer. He called Troy, but the line was busy. He called Troy about five times, but he kept on getting the busy signal. It was the same with all the other Wildcats – Zeke and Jason, too.

He had Gabriella's phone number, but only because everyone who'd been in on the winter musical scheme had gotten each other's phone numbers for code communications. He hadn't even ever used it, but it was still there. Taking a deep breath and praying that he would get her voicemail box, he sent the call.

It took a couple of rings, then… "Hi, this is Gabriella."

He almost hung up, but he figured if she had caller ID she'd know it was him anyway and that would lead to awkward conversations at school. "Hi, Gabriella," he said, choking on the words. "It's Chad."

"Yeah, I kind of knew that," she said, sounding hesitant. "What's up?"

"Well," he said, and then realized he had not even thought about what he was going to say. Here he was talking to his friend's girlfriend, and he was calling her for absolutely no reason. He missed Harry.

"Do you want to go for coffee?" he blurted. He'd had an image of asking her out for a casual thing for a while, but had never imagined doing it so unexpectedly.

"Sure," Gabi said. She sounded really confused. "When?"

"Just today…. Right now," he said. Maybe he could make some background sounds and pretend there'd been some disaster and he couldn't make it after all. But that was lame and cheesy, and Gabi was too smart to fall for that.

"Uh, okay," she said. "Why?"

"Well, nobody's answering their phones. Did you notice? Troy and Zeke and Jason and Martha and Kelsi and them all."

"I know. They're having a confer-"

"No, Gabi!" Chad heard Troy's voice hissing in the background.

"I mean, I don't know. It's really strange."

So what were they hiding now? Feeling put-off, Chad said with a touch of aspersion, "See you at Java Jolt?"

"I guess so."

He hung up, feeling both idiotic and curious. At least he could probably wheedle out what Troy and the others were doing while they were at the Jolt.

Gabi was bewildered. Chad Danforth, who she hadn't talked more than a couple words at a time to, had just asked her to Java Jolt. And while she was thrilled to get away from the boring many-way conference that Troy and his boys were holding, she was still a bit uncertain as to Chad's motives.

They were talking about Chad, of course, which made Troy urge her to go because that would keep him from being suspicious, since he'd be doing something rather than sitting at home wondering why nobody was answering their phones.

So, with some trepidation, she changed out of her sweats and touched up her hair. She knew it was nothing big and she didn't need to look fancy, but she felt inclined to do something more than she would have if Troy had given her a last-minute invite to the Jolt because Chad wasn't someone she knew that well.

Still disbelieving of what he'd just done, Chad changed and looked around the room, searching for something to bring to make it interesting, because he was practically a hundred percent sure that he'd freeze up and have nothing to say. Spotting the yearbook, which he'd somehow still not gotten around to asking her about, he tugged it out of his backpack and set out to the Java Jolt.

As he exited the house and made his away across the freshly mowed lawn, Troy and Zeke were both bemoaning his lack of Chad-esque fire.

The Jolt was pretty much empty; not a lot went on when it was Monday night. An elderly couple was sitting on bar stools and an extremely giggly girl and a gigantic male that Gabi recognized as a quarterback on the football team were sitting together in a cozy booth, presumably on a date.

A couple of coffee-drunk frats were piled on top of each other at the table closest to the entrance. Carefully avoiding them, she sat down alone in a booth beneath the window and waited, ordering herself a vanilla frappucino. Chad came in a few minutes later, and she waved, smiling a little. He looked nice, which made her wish she'd worn something different, but it was good to see that he looked happier than he had before. She made a note to tell Troy to stop worrying because Chad was looking a lot brighter than he had.

"Hi," he said, waving a little tensely. She grinned back.

"So, what's up?" he asked, sliding into the booth next to her and signaling for a waitress.

"Just what I was going to ask you," she replied.

"Why?"

"Well… I mean, it's nice and everything, but I don't know why you asked me here."

"Oh… right." He looked down at his thumbs, which were twiddling in a very dorky fashion.

"Well…?"

"See, Gabriella," he said, trying to focus on the pattern tables and not on her face, "I'm really not sure, either."

"OK," she said, clearly trying to make sense of the whole thing.

"Nobody was answering their phones and I was bored, and you were the only one who'd pick up, so I thought, what the heck? Let the available phone owners come together and rejoice!" he raised his arms in mock celebration and quickly lowered them; some guy from the football team was staring at him strangely.

"That's cool," Gabriella said, nodding slowly. "So, let's just have fun? Nothing to discuss, right, and there's nothing wrong?"  
He'd already frozen up. He contemplated saving his lifeline for later when he was pretty sure there'd be an even more uncomfortable moment, but reached into his knapsack anyway. The drinks weren't there yet and Gabi was fiddling with a napkin, already looking bored.

He was saved from having to waste his quick fix by the waitress, who arrived with Gabi's vanilla frappucino and took Troy's order. Watching as Gabi sipped her drink, he asked after some delay, "What's Troy doing that he didn't want me to know about?"

She shrugged shyly, blushing in a way that made it obvious that she was lying.

"Gabriella!" he exclaimed. "Tell me!"  
She giggled and shook her head. "I can't, Troy will kill me. Besides, I don't think you want to know, either."

"Try me," he challenged fiercely. "I'm not a guy who likes being left out, Gabriella."

"I'll tell you next time we get a cup of coffee, after it's smoothed itself out," she said consolingly. "OK?"

Normally he would've fought back, but he was so happy to hear that she thought there was going to _be _a next time that he shut up. The rest of the drinks came along with a plate of complimentary biscotti.

"I like this stuff," he said, gesturing to the plate as he broke a piece off and chewed it loudly. In the silence of their conversation, the crunching and snapping noises seemed rude and embarrassing. He quickly stopped and resorted to sucking.

She took a piece too and started chewing, which made it seem okay. Just in case she thought it was disgusting, though, he drank a good amount of coffee with it to muffle the sound of chomping.

"So… what're you doing this summer?" she asked. It was a disaster. She was already wishing that she was back with Troy snuggling, he bet.

"Well, Troy and I are looking over summer jobs, but we haven't chosen one yet." He resisted the urge to tell her that nothing was right just because Troy couldn't bear to be apart from her.

"That's cool," she said, doing her slow-nodding thing again. "Tay and I are looking at summer jobs, too, but nothing is really looking that great. Me and Troy want to be together, you know, and so ours have to match and be compatible to us both, and so far it's not working."

"Yeah, I know, Troy told me," he said, trying not to sound too edgy. "Tay and I don't really care if we're together, but it'll be nice if we are."

"Tay says she really wants to be with you," Gabi said in a slightly corrective tone.

"Oh, yeah, I really like her," he said evasively. She hadn't asked a question, so he wasn't going to answer. It made him feel better that Tay was bent on getting a summer job close to him, though. It made it seem a little less desperate that he was having a cup of coffee with his best friend's girlfriend only because his best friend wasn't talking to him. How that made any kind of sense, he wasn't really sure…yet.

"Do you come here often?" it sounded cheesy; he was doing a bad job of disguising that their get-together was not well-planned or necessary at all.

"Well, I guess so," she said. It was definite that she thought he was a moron. And it _was _a stupid question. How many times a week did Troy tell him about all the fun rendezvous that he and Gabi had at the Jolt? How many high school couples _didn't _have fun rendezvous at the Jolt? After all, it was the coolest restaurant in town, unless someone wanted to take their girlfriend to Chuck E. Cheese's.

"That's nice," he said, feeling as if he had to close off the subject, even though he knew it was pointless.

They barely spoke to each other. Gabi drank her coffee slowly, but Chad gulped down all of his a little too soon, because it gave him something to do. Once all the coffee and biscotti was gone, he was forced to stare at her unblinkingly and wait as she finally – oh, it had taken so long! – drained the coffee dregs and set her mug down with a satisfying finality.

Pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and throwing a couple bills on the table, he stood up. "This was really nice," he said, grinning as confidently as he could at her after the horrendously disastrous time they'd just spent together in pulsating silence. "Thanks for signing my yearbook." He had pulled it out halfway through their "date".

"You're welcome. Sign mine tomorrow at school, okay? I didn't think to bring it with me." She stood up too. "Oh, Chad?" she called out as he headed as quickly as he could towards the door. He spun around and looked at her hopefully. Maybe she'd thank him, say she had a good time… even if it was going to be a lie, he would've liked to hear it.

"Can you walk me home?" she asked shyly.

He was frozen in the spot, swaying, shocked, and unable to speak. Gabriella Montez, asking him to walk her home, the girl he'd thought was madly in love with Troy Bolton?

"Gabriella," he said softly, moving towards her with a disgruntled swagger, "I couldn't do that to Troy-"

He expected many things. He could've dealt with her looking embarrassed, begging him not to tell Troy, any number of reactions, but not what she actually did – she burst out laughing, so hard she was forced to sit back down again.

Clutching her stomach and practically crying, she replied, "I didn't mean it like that, Chad! Oh, goodness, no! I could never – Troy – I love him!"

Wiping her eyes hysterically, she straightened up and looked like she was trying to regain her composure. "That was funny, Chad," she said. "Troy was right, you are a good actor."

"Yeah, I was joking," he said a little confusedly. "Rrright."

She was observant enough to realize that he hadn't been joking. Looking extremely mortified, she looked down, her entire face turning the color of beets. "Omigosh, I'm sorry, Chad… I didn't realize…"

"It's okay," he said.

"You're such a good friend," she said with a touch of admiration. He knew that the compliment was only condolence for hurting his feelings – albeit inadvertently.

"I meant, Troy always walks me home, and I get lonely going back, plus I get scared this late at night," she said, gesturing to the window. "After dark I'm really not allowed to walk home alone. So if you could just escort me, that'd be nice, but if you don't want to, I get it, it's okay…."

"No, it's cool, of course I'll do it," he said, relieved, at least, that she hadn't taken offense but had taken it as a joke. He liked to be taken seriously, but it was better than Gabi storming home and telling Troy that Chad had accused her of hitting him up.

She gave him a weak little smile. "Sorry, Chad," she said quietly. "And I swear I won't tell. It was my fault, just a misunderstanding."

He wished she'd stop apologizing and just forget it had ever happened. He was about to ask if she could just shut up about it, but decided that she was being so nice and apologetic that sharpness was totally uncalled for.

They walked to Gabi's house, once again, in complete quietude. Gabi didn't even try to spark a conversation, and neither did Chad. At least she was perceptive of peoples' feelings – she knew that he was in no mood to chat.

"Thanks, Chad," she said, kissing his cheek when they reached her porch. "Have a safe walk home."

"Yeah, I hope I'm not mugged," he said randomly. He was still tetchy after the laughing fit.

"Ok. Bye, Chad." She grimace-smiled and went inside.

He dallied around the block a few times before heading home, taking twenty minutes when it really should've only taken ten. Reflecting, he figured he might've trusted Gabi more than that, but after all, she had seemed almost flirtatious when she said it. _Almost, _but wasn't that enough to make a guy jump to conclusions?

"CHAD!" he heard his mother's holler as soon as he opened the screen door. "Harriet's on the phone!"

Kicking off his shoes, he slouched rather grumpily to the phone and picked it up off the counter. "Hello?"

"Hey, buggy," Harry said cheerfully. "Why are you so down?"

"I had Gabi out for coffee today," Chad said.

"Why? You didn't shoot her down and tell her to lay off Troy, did you?"

"Of course not, Harry!" Chad exclaimed, offended. "I couldn't do something like that! I'm not as bad as you think I am."

"Sure you're not. So what's up?"

"Well…" Chad launched into a lengthy description of the events from his POV. "… and she just starts laughing maniacally! I was like, you ask me to take you home and you know I'm your boyfriend's buddy, what do you expect?"  
Harriet groaned. "Chad, you're so stupid!! She was just trying to be nice to you and make you feel better because she knew you'd be beating yourself up over your terrible date!"  
"Gee, thanks, Harry. You make me feel good about myself."  
"Don't… call… me… Harry!" she exclaimed through gritted teeth.

In the background, he heard some high-pitched voice shrieking about a cockroach, and then Harriet started yelling so loudly he dropped the phone but could still hear her perfectly well. "EWWW, someone squish it, NOW! Randi, what're you doing? Stop it! EWWW, it's crawling towards me!"

Sighing and knowing very well that the conversation would not continue, he hung up and went into his room, slamming the door as hard as he could. The pictures on his nightstand and homework desk rattled.

Just as he had found a comfortable place on the bed to sit and detest the guts of all picky and hard to understand girls in the world, his phone rang, forcing him to sit up and retrieve it from the place he'd thrown it into.

"Hey, 'sup?" it was Troy.

"What've you been doing? Gabriella wouldn't tell me and nobody's answering their phones."

"Well, I guess they're all busy, but I was having a conference with the coach of the Red Hawks from the U of A."

"That explains it. Why was Gabi so secretive about it, though?"

"Search me."

"I heard you yelling at her to keep her mouth shut or some-"

"Hang on a sec, Chad. WHAT?" Troy yelled. Chad could tell from the muffled static that Troy was covering the mouthpiece, though doing a bad job. "Chad, are you still there?" he said a couple seconds later.

"Yeah, what was that about?"

"My mom's beating me up over my minutes. Can you log onto IM?"

"Give me a few minutes." Chad flipped the phone closed and made his way to his computer.

Troy was holding an IM conversation with the rest of them already when Chad logged on. Everyone's moms had eventually started ragging on them about their minutes, so they switched to Internet communications, less trusty but cheaper. When he saw CantTouchtheFro12 online, he double-clicked to start a conversation.

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: Chad?

CantTouchtheFro12: Here.

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: I think u should change ur screen name. It's weird.

CantTouchtheFro12: Why do u say that? I like it a lot.

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: I just think it's weird. have u talked to gab since u got back home

CantTouchtheFro12: nope. Why, is she mad at me & why if she is

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: idk y

CantTouchtheFro12: is it cuz of the coffee thing cuz I didn't mean it like that. Tell her. Did she tell u about it?

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: she just said ur funny n u drink coffee strange

CantTouchtheFro12????????

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16:D like she says u drink outta the side of ur mouth. She says she thought u were gonna spill but u didn't. she was impressed n says that takes skill not 2 spill it while drinking like that.

CantTouchtheFro12: ok…. That's interesting. Did she say n e thing else?

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: nah. Wasn't very interesting 2nite. Said she was tired n went home when she got back from coffee.

CantTouchtheFro12: o, great now she sounds like tay. What did u want to talk about?

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: just 2 say hi. U busy?

CantTouchtheFro12: no.

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: gab says she signed ur yearbook. She says u were nicer than ever b4. I am glad u are cool w/ musical and stuff, 2??

CantTouchtheFro12: sure, kind of. Ok, maybe not so much. But I will be ok soon. And I was always ok with gabi

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: she is cool.

CantTouchtheFro12: yeah… she is.

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: shakes at the jolt 2morrow?

CantTouchtheFro12: 2morrow is tue. night

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: so what?

CantTouchtheFro12: we have bball practice. Duh

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: o yeah 4got2 tell u. cancelled dad has dental appointment

CantTouchtheFro12: u serious?

TroyBoyLuvsBBall16: has about 10 cavities. K g2g. ttyl c u 2 morrow.

CantTouchtheFro12: by

Gabi still couldn't figure out what was wrong with Chad. Tay kept on talking about how he was blocking her out and treating her poorly, and Taylor McKessie, whatever else she could do, would never exaggerate. That meant that Chad was really as bad as Tay was saying – which, by the looks of it, was pretty bad.

Troy had said that nothing much had happened during the conference on Chad. Nobody could figure out what was wrong. He had a great girlfriend, he was the second-best player on the basketball team, and his grades were passable. A couple people thought that he wasn't happy with Taylor – including Taylor – but everyone eventually agreed that Chad was the kind of guy who'd break up with his girl if he wasn't happy.

The weekend came quicker than she thought it would, which also meant everyone was going to a water park, courtesy of Mrs. Bolton. On Friday evening Gabi packed up for two days. They were only staying at the water park for a day; Mrs. Bolton was driving everyone home on Saturday evening, but Gabi was sleeping over at Troy's house.

Everyone was extremely excited about it. Even Taylor, who was usually very calm, started screaming when she talked about her plans for the water park.

The only damper on the anticipation was that by his mother's commands, Troy had been forced to invite Sharpay and Ryan. Ryan had some choir boys' engagement, which meant Sharpay would be going by herself. That meant there was nobody to carry out her orders, which promised to make her even more vicious than usual.

Just as she was packing her swimsuit, Troy called.

"Hola!" she grinned as she picked up the phone. "What're you doing right now?"

"I'm packing. What're you doing?"

"Ditto. I'm so excited, you have no idea. So is Tay."

"What, even with Miss Drama Queen there? To tell you the truth, I'm more scared than happy."

"Oh, come on, Troy, don't let Sharpay ruin it for you! This is going to be such a fun trip. Promise you won't be grouchy?"

"I can't promise… but I can try."

"OK, that's good enough. See you tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Wait, hang on, before you hang up, I need to ask you something."

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Can Chad sleep over with us on Saturday night? Because his mom's out of town and his sister went back to college and his dad's doing the overnight security shift at the bank, so he's alone and he's kind of freaked out because the neighborhood watch dogs have been barking, which means there's a nighttime prowler."  
Gabi shuddered. Chad didn't live in the best part of New Mexico. "That's fine, Troy. Why would you even ask?"

"I don't…. well, just to make sure."

"Yeah, it's cool."

"Great. Chad says thanks."

"What, are you instant messaging him?"  
Pause.

"Maybe I am."

She laughed; she could tell he was smiling, too. "See ya, Troy!"

"Bye, Gab."

She hung up and finished packing. Even though she was glad she'd managed to cheer Troy up and clear thoughts of Sharpay out of his head, she was still wondering why he'd thought to ask her if Chad could sleep over. He'd had no problem in letting her see Chad in drag, which was much more imposing than simply sleeping at Troy's house while Gabi was there, too. Shrugging it off, she washed up and went to bed, crawling with eagerness for the next day.

Troy owed the entire water park trip to his mother, but he was still furious at her for making him let Sharpay come. He was fairly sure that Sharpay would hang over him, drooling, every second, never letting him have a single moment alone with Gabi. That was how it had been at Kelsi's birthday party, to which Sharpay had been invited purely out of the charity of Kelsi's grandmother, a genteel woman who was a big believer in second chances. Sharpay had been given about ten chances, though, and she still wasn't reforming.

They all piled into the car bright and early at six o'clock on Saturday morning. Because of limited vehicle space, and because Zeke was the only person willing to sit next to Sharpay, Gabi ended up sitting on Troy's lap and Tay and Chad were uncomfortably overlapping. The four of them and Kelsi on top of Jason sat in the back row, and Martha and Zeke sat in the middle, with the space next to Zeke open for Sharpay.

She arrived looking like the glamorous snob she always did; pink sunglasses and some ridiculously overpriced designer swimsuit cover along with a pair of jeans that looked like they'd rip if she sat down – which, fortunately, they didn't.

"She looks great," Gabi whispered to Troy earnestly.

"She looks awful," he retorted. He was still sulking.

"Shut up," Gabi hissed. "Be nice, Troy, she's not like a terrorist or something."  
"Might as well be," Troy muttered, but so quietly that Gabi couldn't hear him.

Sharpay giggled delightedly as she got in the car. "Hi, Troy!" she said, still managing to do her signature perky wave in the cramped space of the vehicle. She hardly looked as happy when she discovered that she had to sit next to Zeke. With a disdainful smirk, she slid in next to him and closed the door.

"Buckle up, everyone," Mrs. Bolton yawned. "Here we go."

The ride to the water park wasn't a long one, but by the time the Boltons' sedan had pulled into the parking lot, Troy had called Sharpay nearly every name one could call a loathsome creature without becoming downright vulgar. His wrist was burning from all the times Gabi had pinched him in admonishment. Still, as they all exited the car, Sharpay practically flew to Troy's side, digging her manicured fingers into his shoulder. "Hi, Troy," she said, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously. "Can I go down a water slide with you?" she did a bad imitation of a fashionable pout. "I get scared."

"Ooh, sorry, Sharpay," Troy said nastily. "I've promised Gabi to go down all the rides with her, and we can't fit more than two-"

"Oh, Troy, you're being chivalrous," Gabi giggled meaningfully, pinching his shoulder blade discreetly so Sharpay couldn't see. "Of course we can all go down the slides together! Won't it be fun, Sharpay?" she did the same ridiculous laugh that Sharpay and her Sharpettes did when they found something that wasn't amusing to be highly amusing.

Sharpay gave her a wide, fake smile. "Of course, _Gabriella,"_ she said. "All three of us can go down one! Or, if they can't fit three, maybe just two?" she looked beseechingly at Troy with puppy eyes that made him nauseous.

"I said sorry, Sharpay, but I can only take Gabi on the slides, unless there's room for three," he said firmly.

"Can't we squeeze?" Sharpay giggled yet again. She was really getting on his nerves.

"NO." He turned away, grabbing Gabi's wrist. "Let's go, Gab, we don't want to get a bad tube."  
They heard Sharpay's offended little gasp; accompanied by Zeke's hopeful; "I can take you down the water slides, Sharpay – ouch!" as she slapped him smartly across the face and marched off.

The water park was by no means gigantic, but they all still managed to have fun. Chad and Zeke were having swimming contests, but Taylor spent most of her time lounging by the pool reading the copy of _Griffith's Five Atmospheric Anomalies_ that she'd brought along with her. Jason was helping Kelsi across the "Waterlogged" logs course, and Martha was at the concessions stands having a discussion with the pretzel boy, who looked vaguely bored.

As Troy had predicted, Sharpay spent her entire time hanging over him like some overly clingy towel. He and Gabi floated in the lazy pool together, but Sharpay floated right behind them, complimenting everything about Troy from his newly highlighted hair (compliments of Gabi and Kelsi's hostage trip to the hair salon) to his Cabana Beach swimming trunks, which he said Gabi had given him, just to make Sharpay jealous.

"Have you got a dog?" he finally said out of frustration. "Because you bark like one of those little dogs, you know, like a Yorkie or something."

Gabi splashed water in his face. "Troy Bolton!" she said shrilly. She smiled indulgently at Sharpay. "Forgive him, please, he doesn't realize what he's talking about." She stared menacingly at Troy.

"Sorry, Sharpay," he said wearily, splashing himself along.

Their next attempt to escape Sharpay was to accompany Jason and Kelsi at the log course, but Sharpay was right behind them. She had impeccable balance from her dance training, and so did Troy from all his basketball pivots and moves, which meant that Gabi was stuck behind them. Troy swum back to help her along, and Sharpay followed him, gabbing in his ear as he held Gabi's hand and helped her across.

In a last-ditch attempt to escape, they actually _did_ go on the water slides, only to discover that it was a one-person limit per tube. Gabi sat on top of Troy, and they left Sharpay in her own tube. Gabi laughed as they sped along the slide. "Is she ever going to leave you alone?" she shouted above the rushing winds and roaring water.

"Nah," Troy shouted back, "But it's okay, because I have you to defend me!"  
"You don't need to be defended from Sharpay!"

"You're not the one she has a crush on, Miss Monte-"

He was cut off and ended with a "glub" as the two were dumped into the pool, completely unexpectedly. They hadn't even noticed the end coming, and had not been holding onto the tube, which resulted in them being completely separated from their vehicle and having to tread water to get back to the island in the middle of the pool.

Gasping and spitting, Gabi climbed on top of one of the island's hammocks. "Oh my gosh, Troy, I didn't see that coming!" she laughed even as she retched.

"Totally," he panted. "I – can't – breathe!"

"Do you need CPR, Troy?" the monstrously perky voice was back. Troy shuddered as he turned around and saw Sharpay floating serenely towards them in her tube. She giggled evilly and continued floating towards the island.

Chad was watching as Sharpay joined them. She climbed out of the tube and sat down on the hammock next to Troy, rubbing his back sweetly. He hated her guts for trying to steal Troy from Gabi, but he was glad that Gabi was finally alone. Troy was fighting Sharpay off, but in the couple of seconds that he was battling with her, Chad could just slip over there and steal a conversation with Gabi…

Taking a deep breath, he plunged into the water and swam over.


	4. 4 CONVERSATIONS

CONVERSATIONS

Chad emerged from the water in time to hear Troy tell Sharpay to shove off, though in not so many words. Gabi was dangling her feet over the water looking a little lonely. He sat down on the hammock next to her, following suit in swinging his feet back and forth over the pool-machine-generated waves.

"Hey," he said after he figured out she would not say anything to him unless he said something to her first.

She looked at him and rolled her eyes, jerking a thumb at Sharpay, who was still detaining Troy. He was too gentlemanly – and afraid of Gabi's fingernails – to toss her off the island, which was what he sorely wanted to do.

"I know, it sucks," he said. "I mean, if Ryan was hanging over you – I mean, Tay, well, I mean, if it was Troy, it'd be you, if it was me, it'd be Tay, I guess. I mean, you know what I'm talking about, right?" he had confused and mortified himself enough for any sane person to shut up, but his motor mouth was unstoppable. "So if Ryan was hanging over you Troy would feel the same way, okay? And if he was hitting up Tay, I'd knock the living daylights out of him."

"Right," she said, still looking befuddled. "That's a good analogy… I guess."

"Sorry. I'm not good at explaining things." He stole a glance at Troy, who was turning red in the face with fury at Sharpay.

"Why don't you go and say something? I would."  
She looked at him a little sadly. She was so cute and tragic when she was sad; it took all of his self restraint not to put his arms around her. "Sharpay may be one of the most loathsome creatures I've ever met, but I know how it feels to love someone and be held back by… their, ah… unavailability."

"So, what, you've got experience in man-snatching?" he joked, and was glad to hear her laugh.

"Pretty much, I guess you could say that. Or, you could call me an ex-man snatcher, because this was a one-time thing in the fourth grade."

"Oh, really?" he said, genuinely interested. "Tell me about it."

She giggled a little, but it wasn't the attention-seeking, preppy giggle that Sharpay so loved, it was a shy, sweet thing that made Chad turn red all over.

"Come on, Gabi," he encouraged her.

"Ok, but it's kind of a long story. So my cousin Becky used to live in the same city as me – or, actually, for the fourth grade I lived in the same city as Becky, since I moved and she stayed. But anyhow, she had this really cute boyfriend named Bradley, but we always called him Brad. Brad apparently thought I was pretty, and so he started hanging out with me more than Becky. I really liked him, or thought I did. Hey, I was nine, what did I know? So one day Becky and I had a shouting match because she caught me on the swings with Brad, and she thought it was like a secretive thing, when we were just talking. So I never saw Brad again and Becky barely spoke to me after that. When she did, trust me, those were not civil words."

Chad looked at her, surprised. "Why didn't you fight for your man?"

Apparently what he said was again, funny against his will, because she started laughing. "What, is that like a chick phrase you picked up from your older sister?"

"Kind of," he said. "I read her magazines at the night. But don't tell! It's a very covert operation."

She smiled, and he thought he saw her blush, but he didn't get to check because Troy had finally managed to send Sharpay swimming away and was coming over. "Hey, guys," he said to Chad. "What's up?"

He could read the signals shooting like daggers from Troy. Now that Sharpay was out of the picture, he wanted alone time with Gabi. Of course, because they were dating, and Chad was just the annoying best friend who popped in occasionally…

"Bye," he said, and dove into the water again. Taylor had put away her atmospheric anomalies; he swam over to join her.

"He seems much better," Gabi said. "At our coffee date he was pretty ok until the whole fiasco with walking me home happened. And since then he's been a bit grumpy towards me, but today he seems ok."

Troy stretched across the hammock. "I guess. Let's just lounge here for a while, okay? Sharpay's exhausted me."

She laughed and lay across him. "Are you ever going to see her as… your type, Troy?"

"Of course not, Gabi! No matter how rich Sharpay is or how connected, she'll never draw me away from you. You're my girl, and you always will be. Sharpay is… whatever."  
"OK," Gabi said, comforted. "Let's go swimming. That's why we came here."

"Can we please relax?" his voice was tense enough to convince her.

"Fine, just for a little while." She lay back, looking out at the pool where Martha and Kelsi were goofing off.

"Where'd Chad go?" Troy propped himself up on his elbows and looked around for Chad.

"I don't know. Probably with Tay, because I saw him head in her direction."

"Well, where's Tay?"

Alarmed enough to sit up, Gabi joined Troy in looking around. "Maybe they snuck off," she suggested. "After all, you told Chad that kissing's 'fun'."

"Hey, I have no idea where that came from," Troy defended himself, whacking Gabi on the back of her head. "And you said it to Taylor."

"Yeah… to _mock_ you, slick!" Gabi laughed.

"You need to shut up or I'll knock you silly," Troy teased.

"I can totally fight back." She rolled onto her side to face him. "Try me."

"OK, I will," he said, and then pushed her off the hammock into the water without any warning.

"OMIGOSH!" she screeched as she hit the water and went under. Resurfacing spluttering and gasping, she swam back towards the island and raised a fist. "This is war!" she climbed back up and turned the hammock over, sending Troy the same way as he had sent her.

"Troy!" just as Troy doggy-paddled his way towards Gabi, Sharpay reappeared, clearly having gotten over everything he'd said to her only a couple minutes before.

"Dear lord, Mirror Princess," Troy groaned. "Sorry, Gabi!"

"Hey, it's not your fault." She flipped onto her back and began swimming away as Sharpay approached.

"Sharpay, what do you want?" Troy swam over to face her at the ledge of the pool, looking up at her. She was doing the smile that showed off her pearly teeth and blindingly shiny lip gloss.

"Well, to hang out with you. Isn't that what this one-day vacation is all about?!" she slid into the water after him, sliding her high heels off and leaving them by the pool ladder. "Do you like my bikini? I think it's really cute. It was discounted at-"

"I don't care," he said coldly. Gabi was by herself again sitting on the edge of the pool. "Oh, and actually, I don't want to be with you," he added. Gabi couldn't hear him, so he could unleash with some moderation. "I want to be with Gabriella because she's my _girlfriend."_ The emphasis on the last word did it. Sharpay looked at the water, looking defeated, and then swam to the kiddy pool where Zeke was fascinating a bunch of kid chefs with tales of his kitchen adventures.

Troy started swimming to Gabi, but saw Chad appear out of seemingly thin air and sit down next to her. They started talking. He rejoined them just as Gabi started laughing, and by the looks of it Chad had meant to make her laugh that time, because he was laughing too.

"Hey," Chad said, punching Troy's arm. "Where'd you disappear to?"

"Where'd you?" Troy tried not to sound jealous.

Gabi slid back into the water and floated over to him, leaping onto his back. In the water, she was weightless; he flipped her over, laughing as she struggled to come back to the surface. Chad watched with mild interest. "I was with Tay," he said. "We went to the sauna."

"Ooh," Troy said while battling Gabi's hands away from his face. "Was it fun?"

"You were right, it is," he said, smiling mysteriously, and then got up and walked away.

Gabi stopped her pawing immediately and watched Chad walk away. "They did kiss?" she gasped. "Omigosh, I have to find Tay and ask her!"

"Have fun," Troy said. Gabriella didn't even hear him; she tore out of the pool and towards the sauna, splashing water everywhere.

"Oh, Troy," said Sharpay in a pathetic attempt at sympathy, "Here I find you, all alone. Has that Montez girl finally abandoned you? Do you seek solace? A shoulder to cry on?" before Troy could smack her away, she started singing to him, right in the middle of a public place. He nearly ducked underwater as she belted out, "_You're the guy for me, you kiddo! I love youuuu… SOOOO! And all the hard knocks we take, the things that we break, through thick and thin it's all good 'cuz you're the guy for MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" _

"Sharpay, shut up!" Troy hissed as people started staring. Gabi and Taylor came out of the sauna, giggling privately to each other. Gabi didn't even look at Troy as she passed by.

Sighing, he dunked under and floated away, desperately hoping to drown himself.

The trip ended much too early, but as much as she whined about how she could go back and swim for at least a couple more hours, Gabi was exhausted by the time they'd dropped off the last hitchhiker – Kelsi. After hugs and kisses goodbye, she groaned and leaned back against Troy. Now that the car was empty, Chad was sprawled across the middle row, snoring softly.

Gabi laughed looking at him. "He's really out for the count."

"Must be tired," Troy mulled. "All that kissing."

"Does the Wildcat superstar sound jealous?!" Gabi mock-gasped; "Is his girlfriend not good enough for him now?"

"I could do with a dose of what Chad got," Troy said, doing another poorly accomplished wink.

Gabi sat up straighter and pecked him quickly on the lips. "How's that?"

He shrugged and made an unsatisfied noise. "Okay."

She straightened up again and put her arms around his neck. The kiss was quiet, because Mrs. Bolton could've easily checked out in the rearview mirror to see what was going on if she heard any noises. Even though there was no noise, it was great. By the time they'd pulled apart, Troy was almost asphyxiating from the length he had just gone without breathing.

Gabi smiled at him sweetly. "Was that good enough for the Wildcat superstar, or will he go cheating with someone younger and feistier?"

"Ease up! You make us sound like Kobe Bryant and his wife," Troy chortled.

Mrs. Bolton rose up in her seat and looked back. "You kids okay?" she asked suspiciously.

"Just playing good old-fashioned clapping games, Mom," Troy called to her. The volume of his voice woke up Chad, who snorted and grunted a couple of times and then sat up, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "We there yet?" he mumbled.

Gabi playfully kicked his chair. "No, Chad. We're actually driving outside of New Mexico to dump you in the river and then drive off."  
Chad rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Harry."

"I'm Gabriella," Gabi said loudly, jolting him awake.

"Sorry," he groaned, and then lay back down.

"This Wildcat superstar's conked out," Troy laughed.

"Not a Wildcat superstar," Chad retorted sleepily, and then promptly started snoring again.

They arrived at the Bolton house fifteen minutes later. Gabi unloaded her bags, stumbling all over the place as Troy guided her carefully up the hill leading to the house.

As soon as they'd gotten into his bedroom, she went into the bathroom and showered. She was asleep before she hit her pillow; the rhythmic sound of Chad's snores were enough to lullaby her asleep.

By the time morning came, Gabi was deliciously rested and feeling much perkier than she had the previous night. Chad took a couple of hours to wake up, and she lay in her sleeping bag contemplating the rest of the day until the boys had risen.

After they'd all washed up, Mrs. Bolton drove Gabi and Chad back to their houses. Because of Troy's excess of homework, which he'd declined to finish on Friday night, he was not allowed to ride with Gabi back to her house and they said goodbye on the porch. She clambered into the car next to Chad, relaxed and feeling very pleasant.

"That was so much fun," she gushed as Mrs. Bolton revved the engine.

Chad yawned. "It was."

He was very conscious of the fact he was sitting in close quarters with Gabi, but his nervousness was cancelled out by the lethargy that was biting on his ankles.

"I had fun doing coffee," she offered.

"Great." He looked like he'd drop off any second.

"We could do it again sometime."

He blinked a few times and looked slightly more awake. She was looking at him smiling earnestly. She was serious…

"OK," he said. "Do you want to tell Troy, or should I?" he was hoping against all hopes that she'd say, "Screw Troy. It's you I want, Chad Danforth." Or at least, "Maybe just this once, I can do something without Troy Bolton." But instead, she replied very pleasantly and very unaffectedly, "OK, I can call him. Why don't we go out for a homework party at the Jolt on Tuesday night? That's when most of the teachers give the most homework."

"Cool." He had lost interest. If Troy was coming, it'd be another drool fest. He could technically get Tay to tag along, but she never drooled over him. She drooled over Mr. Griffith and his atmospheric anomalies.

"What's wrong?" Gabi had noticed the loss of the light in his face that had come at the mention of having coffee together.

"Nothing!" he said, batting her off. If Gabi ever found out that all he wanted was to be with her alone…

"Here we go," Mrs. Bolton said, pulling up in front of Gabi's house.

Gabi flashed an extremely heart-melting smile at Chad. She could've been a movie star, if she gained a couple inches in height and got the fancy teeth veneers that so many stars did. "See ya around, Chad," she said, giving him a wink. He noticed she was much better at it than Troy.

"Yeah, see ya around," he said, trying and failing to not sound discouraged. She watched as she bounded freely up the lawn and through the front door.

"Buggy, is that you?"

"Yep," Chad said wearily. Seeking timeworn advice, he had finally deigned to call Harriet, which was the first time since her very first day at college. Usually he just talked to her whenever she chanced to drop by home.

"Shoot," she said.

"Harry - I mean, Harriet – I come for nothing but advice," he said warningly. "So don't get into your philosophical crap and all, okay? I just want the cold, hard stuff."

"Sure. Don't worry, I just get philosophical really late at night, and it's only early afternoon, so I'm cool. But what's wrong? Still the whole Montez-Bolton thing?"

Chad shrugged, and then, realizing that Harry couldn't see him, he said, "Yeah."

"Well, it's just one of those things that you need to face your fears on," she said. "You need to just tell Troy how you feel, Chad."

They had already hit the speed bump Chad had been begging he could slowly work his way into.

Because he had called Harry not to talk to her about how to confront Troy about his concerns, but to find out how to break the news to Gabi that…

"I like her," he blurted, unable to contain himself.

"Excuse me?" Harriet said. "Did you just say what I think you said…?"

"Yes," he said. "I really like her. I didn't think so at first, I thought I was just paying attention to her for the first time, but the coffee thing… she's so pretty, Harry, you just have to see her! And the way she looks at me, with those shining eyes… and she has these like, puppy dog eyes, and she looks so cute even if she's really sad, and she glimmers when she's happy, just like _glow._"

"Oh, my god," Harriet said. He could tell that she was disappointed in him. "No offense, buggy, but that's awful! You like your best friend's girlfriend? That's the worst choice you could ever have to make."

He sighed. "You don't make me feel much better, Gabi."

"Sorry," she said quickly. "Here, let me fix it. Just tell me the whole story and maybe I can help you sort this out, okay?"

"Sure," he said, and launched himself into the winding tale. "I couldn't really tell until just a couple days ago. Now she thinks we're actually getting to be friends, which I can tell she's excited about, but what if she figures out I'm talking to her so much because I want to be even more than friends? She might tell Troy, and it's Troy, Harry, I can't afford to stop being friends with Troy! He's my guy. And I'm…." He was lost, and Harry could tell it.

"It's okay, buggy," she said consolingly. "We'll figure this out, I promise."

He sat through a couple short anecdotes about situations she'd been in that were just like his, which she'd navigated her way out of. But nothing was as touchy or as delicate as his situation, and they both knew it.

"You're whipped," Harriet said.

"Gabi's such a great girl for Troy. And I thought Tay was such a good girl for me, but I guess she's not," he said despairingly. "I mean, whenever I see her I just get all tingly and flustered and I feel so angry now about Tay and how I didn't get Gabi when I could've. I don't think she even knows that I like her at all, friend or otherwise, I get the feeling she thinks I'm sort of standoffish."

"Hey, if Gabi and Troy are the perfect match, I can't let you get in the way, I'm too much of a romantic," Harriet said. "Truth be told, buggy? I don't think you have any chance with this girl, not if you want to keep Troy. From the sound of it, she's whipped by him and he is by her. The question is how you can break it to them, because you can't keep this secret. You just have to relay it to Gabi in a way that lets her know that it's there, but you won't act on it. Get it?"

"Got it," he replied. Hearing Harry say that he had no chance made his heart ache with painful sorrow, but he knew it was true and it was refreshing to find such brutal honesty.

"So, maybe this is just a phase and it'll wash over. Ride it out, buggy, like surfing. Remember what I told you on our family vacation to Hawaii? Go with the flow. Go with the flow, and maybe you'll just stop, and when you do, get back to me. I have a date with Conan in fifteen minutes and I still have to do my hair. That's the best I can do right now, until you're completely grounded. From the looks of it you're still floating in hope, like you're really hoping you still can land Gabriella. But… once you realize that's just not happening, call me, okay, buggy? This week's a bit slow-going, so I'll be in my dorm a lot. Call any time, if I don't answer, try my cell."

"Thanks, Harry," he sighed.

"You're welcome, buggy. Bye now."

"Bye."

He hung up and flopped on his bed, gazing out the window. Everything he looked at had Gabi's face on it. And suddenly a painful but hopeful revelation struck him… perhaps, just perhaps, if there was any way, he would be willing to sacrifice Troy for Gabi.

But honestly, what chance was there of that happening in the current century?


	5. 5 KEEP IT REAL

KEEP IT REAL

After his conversation with Harriet, Chad highly doubted he'd be able to work up the guts to call Gabi on Tuesday night and reminder her about the homework/coffee date. He also knew it would be hopeless, because he'd only been doing it to endear himself to Gabi, and after what Harriet had told him – that it was totally pointless – he'd pretty much given up on any chances of landing her.

Still, at exactly 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, he found himself teasing himself with the phone, getting up to retrieve it, dialing in her number, but somehow never managing to get the courage to press Send.

He did this for an hour before changing numbers and calling Harriet's dorm and cell. The first time, he got this recording:

"You have reached the dorm of Harriet, Randi, and Jessephus. We are not – what? I'm making the frickin' recording! – okay, fine, it's the dorm of Harriet, Randi, and _Jessie. _Are you happy now? Well, good! Where was I? Oh yeah, we are currently indisposed and would be grateful if you left your name, message, and a phone number. AHH!! COCKROACH!!!! SQUISH IT, HARRIET!" followed by the pre-recording: "To page this person, press 5. To leave an automatic callback number, press 1. To leave a message, please wait for the tone."

When he tried her cell, he got this recording:  
"Harriet Danforth here. I'm unavailable right now. Leave a message after the tone, because if you start before it, you get cut off… trust me, I know from experience. 'Kay, bye!"

He left several messages on both and then faced the phone again. It was already six; if he didn't call soon, it was never going to happen.

Finally, practically trembling with anticipation, he dialed Gabi's number and sent the call.

"Gabriella Montez," her voice sounded sharp and a little asperse.

"Gabi, it's Chad," he said.

"Hi. What's up?

"Remember…. The coffee date…?"

"Omigosh, I'm so sorry Chad!" she exclaimed, at least sounding truly remorseful. "Are you at the Jolt right now?"

"No, no, don't worry. I was just calling to see if you still wanted to do it."

"Oh." From the sound of her voice, he could tell she was biting her lip nervously.

"It's okay if you don't," he reassured her.

"I'm really sorry, Chad, but I totally forgot and I can't undo these plans…"

"It's fine, Gabriella! Don't worry about it. Talk to you at school, ok?"

"Yeah… okay. I'm really, really sorry!"

"It's FINE. Bye." He hung up before he accidentally-on-purpose made it very clear to Gabriella that it was most certainly not fine.

When Chad had called, Gabriella and Troy were locked into an embrace that took several seconds to get out of. When she did, discovering that it was Chad calling did nothing to help with the awkwardness of the situation. Untangling herself, she stood up and apologized several times to him before he hung up on her.

"I feel terrible," she confessed. "I don't want to make him all depressed again!"

"It's fine, Gabi, he didn't even go to the Jolt, he was just calling to reconfirm, which you… didn't."

"But I should've! I guess I regarded it as one of those things that was never going to happen, because I didn't even write it down in my planner! Troy, I feel awful. Maybe I should call him back and go anyways…?"

"If you ditch me, then I'll be mad at you. We were having so much fun!"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, that was sure fun. But if my mom comes up any time soon, I'll be grounded, and so will you if she calls your parents, which I'm pretty sure she will."

He raised his hands to the skies. "Do I have to bring you to a remote park every time I want to kiss you?"

She giggled and smoothed back his hair, which was flopping over his eyes. "I'm your girlfriend. You should learn to do things for me. I'm special!"

"Egotistical," he corrected, standing up and brushing himself off.

"Ooh, big word for little brain," she teased.

"Hey!" he threw a pillow at her but missed.

"I wonder how you got voted captain of the basketball team," she said, unrelentingly cruel.

"Because of this!" he got another pillow and whipped it directly into her face.

"Ouch!" she did the same to him. Before long all of her decorative and practical pillows were strewn across the floor, some losing feathers at rapid speed. She collapsed onto a bunch of them, laughing hysterically. Troy joined her.

Chad had completely flown out of both of their minds by then; and away from them in his own bedroom he lay on his bed and wondered what they were doing.

Gabi met Tay by their lockers the next day; it was an Appreciation of Arts day, which meant school as cancelled and the entire school day was devoted to attending different seminars on different forms of art. It promised to be an interesting day, especially because Sharpay and Ryan had been asked to perform at the _Dramatic Arts_ seminar. They hadn't told anyone which song they were set to sing, but there were rumors flying around that it was something about the Hawaiian official state fish.

"Professor Boris is coming back," Taylor said, sounding like she was already preparing for some serious ennui. "Remember last time? 'Science is meant to extend the mind, stretch the boundaries…' dear lord, I thought I was going to fall asleep, and it's _me, _I'm like the queen of science and all things academic, you know me, but that was just terrible deliver-"

"I though it was amazing. Lest you fear about being bored the entire day, I can ease your pains," Sharpay butted in, appearing magically between the two of them. "And guess what, Gabriella?" she beamed with the sincerity of Cinderella's evil stepmother. "They asked _me _to perform, not_ you!_ Which I think tells both of us who's the better singer and who _should've_ been selected for Minnie in the winter musical, don't you think so, too?"

Gabi didn't reply, but stared at Sharpay like she was something stuck to the bottom of one of Gabi's shoes. "Relax, Sharpay," she replied. "We all know my selection was a fluke, which is why Mrs. Darbus has asked me back for the spring musical."  
Tay, unable to contain her amusement, snorted and started giggling uncontrollably.

Looking morally offended, Sharpay turned on her heel and trotted away, Ryan groveling at her heels along with her three Sharpettes.

"She'll have your head for that one," Taylor warned, shutting her locker closed with unnecessary force and setting down the hall.

Following her, Gabi answered, "I know, but I have Troy to protect me. Can Chad protect you?"

She took it was a discouraging sign that Taylor didn't answer.

The first half of the seminars flew by. They were about personal hygiene, abstinence, and protecting your physical privacy, all of which had already been covered – in the exact same words – during health class, and even during the lengthy Phys Ed lectures that their grouchy teacher was prone to make.

The Dramatic Arts was right after lunch. Sharpay and Ryan did not appear in the cafeteria; word had it that they were being personally catered to in their dressing rooms.

Gabi ate lunch with Troy and the rest of the Wildcats, but nobody had seen Taylor or Chad since the personal hygiene seminar.

Everyone assembled in the auditorium at precisely 1:30 to view what promised to be one of the most interesting lectures of the day. Mrs. Darbus was delivering the introduction and introducing Ryan and Sharpay, after which Ricky Bambini, a hotshot from Hollywood, would discuss the procedures of moviemaking.

Troy and Gabi were still scanning the crowd for Chad and Tay; they still hadn't shown up. The lights flicked off and Mrs. Darbus was spotlighted before either could find their best friends.

"Welcome to the Dramatic Arts Seminar!" Mrs. Darbus screeched into the microphone. "As we gather in this hallowed hall…"

Gabi slept on Troy for most of it; Troy was playing Hangman with Chad until Sharpay and Ryan's number, for which Gabi woke up exclusively.

It was about the Hawaiian state fish. Ryan was dressed as a Tiki warrior, and Sharpay was wearing a ridiculously skimpy mermaid-princess costume that glittered so brightly several people were putting on sunglasses for a joke. Mrs. Darbus and her Drama Club ushers moved in and out of the rows, kicking people out of the auditorium for disruptive behavior.

By the time Sharpay got around to singing about her fish prince, Chad and Troy had resumed their game, having determined that nothing worth viewing was going on, and Gabi went back to sleeping across Troy's lap.

As the lights turned back on and people started filtering out of the exits, both Troy and Gabi saw the same thing at the same time – in different places. "I see her!" Gabi called out, pointing to the right side of the theater, simultaneously with Troy, who pointed at the left and said, "There they are!"

"Why aren't they sitting together?" Kelsi asked, seeing the wide separation between the two of them. "I mean, when they disappeared they must've been together, right?"

Troy shrugged grimly. "Chad's been acting so strangely, you really can't tell what's going on. Gabi, you ask Tay, I'll go figure Chad out. Meet back by my locker in a few minutes?"

Gabi nodded and dashed down the shallow auditorium steps, hurrying towards Tay. "Hey, wait up!" she called.

Tay turned and looked straight at her, stopping Gabi dead in her tracks. Taylor looked awful up close; she had clearly been crying and was still hiccupping a little. Also, judging by the state of her usually impeccably gelled hair, she had been tearing it out.

"What's wrong?" she caught up with her and slung an arm around her shoulders. "Walk with me."

Taylor's first attempts at speech were pitifully unintelligible, full of hiccups and scattered sobs. When she'd finally regained her composure, they were almost at Troy's locker.

"What did you say?" Gabriella asked gently. She sat Taylor on a bench and held her hands, waiting.

"Chad…" Tay groaned, burying her face in her sleeves.

"What did Chad do, Tay-Tay?"

"Chad broke up with me," Tay sobbed. "I don't know why, he wouldn't say. All he said was… there's someone…. Else!" she started crying hysterically.

"Oh, Tay-Tay, it's all right!" Gabi cried out, even though she was as shocked as Taylor was. Taylor and Chad were like PB&J. After Gabi and Troy had gotten together, it seemed only right for Taylor and Chad to do so, too. Also, now that Taylor was no longer dating a basketball star, she'd probably resume calling all athletes "lunkheads", one of the few things about Taylor that bothered Gabi to no extent.

Taylor nodded and blew her nose loudly. "I don't care about him… it's just… I'll get teased dreadfully by everyone; they'll all call me the weirdo boy-repellent again!"

"Since when does Taylor McKessie care what others think?" Gabi demanded. "Relax, a boy doesn't make a girl, nor vice versa!"

"You're right. I have to go to my locker and get more tissues," Taylor sniffled. "Thanks, Gabi. See you at the science lecture?"  
"Absolutely," Gabi said, grinning. She sat on the bench until Taylor was safely out of view, before stealing around the corner and discovering Chad and Troy in an animated conversation.

"Man, she just bugs me! I found someone else to go after, okay!"

"But Taylor is so perfect for you!" Troy slammed his fist into his locker. "Come on, Chad, see sense!"

"I don't like her anymore! Get over it! You're as bad as she is!" Chad shouted.

"At least tell me who you're making eyes at _now, _Mr. Player-Player," Troy retorted.

Chad immediately shut up and flushed bright red.

"I told you, Troy, I can't!"

"Which makes me think you don't actually like anyone else," Troy finished, crossing his arms. "You tell me and you can rest your case, sir."

Chad scuffed at the floor with his sneaker. "I can't, man. But I… Tay… she's not my girl anymore, okay? End of story. It was a big mistake."

"Man, when we won the championship game, and you could've picked any girl in that stinking court, because they were all drooling all over us, you chose Taylor McKessie! That means something!"  
Gabi felt guilty thinking it, but Troy looked really cute when he was worked up, and it was so sweet how he was standing up for Tay.

"Because she was just there, and she smelled like lilacs and crap!" Chad seemed to realize this was a poor argument and reconsidered his face in his hands. "OK, just listen to me, Troy. If you suddenly realized that Gabi wasn't your type…. I mean, even if you knew everyone would be like, whoa, they broke up? They were perfect! Would you really just stay with her?"

"I think I actually might. I'd just give her a second chance, wait it out."

"See, that's the thing!" Chad looked pretty cute too. "I _gave_ her a chance! I've waited it out! And now I'm finished waiting, because I want to pursue the new girl of my dreams… no matter how difficult it is." At the last five words, he seemed to falter a little bit. He looked to the side and saw Gabi peeking over the corner. He turned tomato red. "Were you listening? Did you hear?"

She nodded slowly. "Chad, please reconsider! Taylor is crushed. If you could just tell us who you like, then it could all be better."

Chad's heart was racing and his mind was whirling. What if he told Gabi? What would she think of me? And what about Tay? What if he felt like getting back together with her, and then she turned him down because he'd had a crush on her best friend?

He looked at Gabi, who was beautiful in fury, even though she was furious at him.

Give Tay another chance… maybe it would work, but he seriously doubted it. After all, he'd been giving her a chance for months and months, and all it had done was make him eye Gabi with more desire.

Taylor rounded the corner, still sobbing but clearly trying to stifle it. When she saw Gabi, Troy, and Chad grouped together, she started crying afresh and turned around, fleeing and leaving a trail of tears behind her.

"Look at her!" Troy exclaimed. "She's destitute! Ooh, big word," he added as a second thought. Gabi punched his arm. "Whoops – I mean, Chad, please, why are you being so cruel to her? She really likes you and you guys were perfect together!"

Chad was frustrated now. Why were they forcing him to go with a girl he didn't even like?

"Really, we were perfect? That's funny, because last time I checked, for two people to be perfect together, they both have to _like each other."_ He glared at Troy pointedly.

Gabi sighed.

"Ok, Chad, it's your choice, we get it. We're just begging you to rethink it. OK? Just reconsider."  
She looked so sweet and so sad, he nearly decided to get back with Tay just to make her happy, but realized that would completely defeat eh point.

He shrugged a little. "I'm sorry, you guys. I don't think it's happening."  
And with that, Chad Danforth _thought_ he'd polished off his relationship with Taylor McKessie and was heading towards one with Gabriella Montez.

Or not.


	6. 6 TO GABI

TO GABI

When Chad woke up the next morning, he could hardly believe it. That morning, he would not greet Tay affectionately in front of the school and head in together. What was worse, he wouldn't meet anyone at the front of the school- they were all angry at him for ending what they considered a meant-to-be relationship. Especially Sensitive Baker Zeke, he thought as he rolled out of bed bitterly.

He'd talked to Harriet for hours after he'd gotten home from school; he'd even almost cried and come extremely close to calling Taylor and getting back together. Harriet thought he was an idiot, but told him it would be too tacky to get back with her after just breaking up. "Just wait a while, you need to calm down and then make your decision," she'd said.

Tay was gone. Tay was no longer his. What if she had gotten a new boyfriend already…?

He envisioned nightmarish scenes in which he threw himself at Taylor's feet, begging to be taken back, and some quarterback came over and said, "Don't you touch my girlfriend, scrawny."

Or, he approached Gabi and tried to ask her out, but got so tongue-tied he could only stutter, and Troy and the whole gang turned their backs on him forever. What then? What would he do?

As he was quavering and totally distracted, it took several tries to get his clothes on right. Once he did, he attempted to calm himself using the yoga techniques that Ryan was always babbling about. Deep breaths… in and out, in and out… nose to mouth…

It was fine. Gabi would talk to him, because Gabi was a nice girl, and he might just work things out with Tay. If he didn't, who cared? He didn't like her as a girlfriend and even if he didn't get together with Gabi, he doubted he'd want to have Taylor again.

Slightly more calmed, he headed down to breakfast.

Troy and Gabi met at the rooftop garden a half hour before school started. This was not a romantic date. This was serious business. It was, like all the Wildcat meetings had been for the past couple of weeks, about Chad, but this time, there would be no joking around. Just the two of them, trying to figure out what was wrong with Troy's best friend and why he'd hurt Gabi's best friend's feelings so badly.

They shared a short, sweet kiss at the top of the stairs before making their way to the bench and seating themselves.

"So…" Gabi looked out at the beautiful view of Albuquerque. "Chad."

"Chad," Troy conceded. "I don't get it. I've known him since preschool, and he's never acted like this. Distant, awkward… a bit OCD…."

"Yes, and I never thought I'd ever see Taylor cry like that, she's so collected. She must've really liked him, Troy, and now that she doesn't have him I don't even know if she's coming to school today, and for god's sake, it's _Tay!" _

Troy nodded somberly. "This is a big step for Chad to make, and I'm pretty sure he has no idea what the heck he's doing."

"No, no guy would ditch a girl like that if he knew what he was doing."

They exchanged covert smiles for a split second, knowing that Troy would never hurt Gabi like that, ever.

"Wait a second," Gabi said, realizing something. "Why is the school open if it's so early?"

"Because," Troy said, fidgeting a little, "I may've pulled a couple strings with the janitor who comes to clean the toilets before school starts."

Gabi laughed a little. "Those janitors don't get paid enough to put up with your shenanigans."

"Hey, they love me," Troy replied coolly. "Can I help that I'm popular with students and staff?"

"Shut up, Mr. Ego," Gabi said, and then went back to being serious. "But about Chad…"

"We just need to talk to him. Let's corner him after school and threaten to punch his guts out if he doesn't spill his secret-"

"Stop it," Gabi scolded. "Violence is a last resort, Mr. Bolton. And so are threats and blackmail."

"Yes, Ms. Montez." He doffed an imaginary hat.

"Let's stop goofing around," she added, even though she knew that was impossible when you were the girlfriend of Troy Bolton.

"You know," he said thoughtfully, "when we had our first kiss, I was so confused."

She slapped him playfully. "I could tell! I was wishing for a genie to inject intelligence into your head!"

"Shut up. I can never tell what girls want. You guys are so… closed up."

She rolled her eyes. "And you guys are so clueless. This is beside the point, Troy. We need to focus on Chad and Taylor. We need to get them to reconcile, even if they do stop dating."

"You're right," he said, narrowing his eyebrows and jokingly putting on an about-face. "This is TNP war!"

"Yeah… sure," she said, crossing her arms. "And you'll be the first casualty if you don't stop that!"

He quickly ceased his goofiness. "I'm sorry, Gab."

"It's fine."

They continued talking until the first warning bell rang, at which they sprang up and fled downstairs, having reached the conclusion that the best way to get Chad to open up was to treat him normally, so he could feel comfortable telling them. Gabi had been in the middle of noting the danger of this – Chad could think they'd forgotten about it and never mention it again – when the bell rang.

Chad was at his locker when Troy arrived, out of breath, at his. "Hey, man," he said, punching Chad's arm. Chad gave him a look that echoed so strongly of Gabi Troy jumped back.

"Man, don't pull anything on me. I'm not getting back with Taylor," Chad said coldly. "So just… lay off."

"Dude, chill," Troy said reassuringly. "I wasn't going to say anything. You open up when you feel like it. I was just going to ask if you were coming to practice."

Chad slammed his locker shut with unnecessary force. "Yeah. Bye.''

Troy watched him storm down the hall. Apparently, they'd have to come up with a Plan B.

Gabi couldn't help but admire Taylor for showing up at school that day. She hardly looked bright-eyed and cheery – her hair was frizzy and uncombed, her clothes were wrinkled and looked like she'd slept in them – but she was there, raising her hand, participating in class discussions, and receiving back her A+ test.

The news of her breakup with Chad had not gotten around the school on the actual day it happened, but by the time lunch came the next day, it seemed that everyone knew. They watched with beady, hungry eyes as Chad sat alone. A couple girls were tactless enough to go over and hit him up, but he brushed them aside. Even though he'd broken up with Taylor, he seemed just as dejected, which Gabi and Troy took as a good sign. Taylor was discouraging their plans, saying she didn't want to be dating the earth's scum anyway, but even Troy, whose observance was sadly lacking, could tell that she would've done anything to get back with him.

Little did they know, though, that Chad was not even vaguely sad because of Tay; he had accepted that there was nothing he could ever do to win her back even if he ever wanted to.

He was trying not to look saddened because he was fairly sure everyone would take it the wrong way; but it was because of Gabi, who had hung at Troy's side like Sharpay sometimes did all day. They had been talking in low voices and giggling together and kissing and feeding each other food at lunch. There was clearly no strife at all between them, and that bugged Chad. It lessened his chances to a big fat zero.

He almost called Harry several times during lunch period, but was afraid a lunch monitor would confiscate his phone because it was to remain off at all school hours, even during breaks. Eventually he went to the administrator's office and borrowed Mrs. Planck's phone.

Harry did not answer her dorm or cell, and this time Chad didn't bother leaving messages or even completely listening to the voicemail recording for the dormitory. He only got up to the voice saying, "I'm doing the frickin' recording!" before hanging up and slowly trudging back to class.

Of course in biology, Gabi just _had_ to scoot her stool right up next to Troy and Troy just _had_ to put his arms around her to protect her little hands from the fire, even though she pushed at him and laughed and told him that she could do it just fine and he was acting too motherly for her taste.

And then, Gabi had to share a very _special _moment with Troy as she showed him what to do with her Bunsen burner. Chad was so obsessed with watching them that he burned his hands several times before he finally focused, sickened by what he was seeing.

The science teacher even almost sent Gabi and Troy to the principal's office for PDA. Chad nearly vomited onto his air pressure gauge.

Why did they have to be so touchy-feely? It was a miracle that neither had ever been suspended for their obvious public display of affection in the hallways and cafeteria. Luckily for them, everyone seemed to think it was _cute. _Cute? So was a _Sports Illustrated _swimsuit cover model, and those had been banned from the insides of lockers and the boys' locker room walls.

By the time the dismissal bell had rung, Chad's head was spinning. There was no chance. No chance at all, because Gabriella as infatuated with a Wildcat superstar, and it was most definitely not Chad.

He fled to his locker, hoping to beat Troy to it so they wouldn't have another awkward run-in. But as soon as he flung open the locker door, about a dozen invitations from hopeful girls came flooding out.

_You're cordially invited to get your Mojo on at the Detroit, Michigan themed "Groovy Boogie" birthday party of Katrina van Hock. A lucky guy will get to kiss the b-day girl! Raffle tickets cost fifty cents. _

_Balloons, birthdays, cakes, oh my! Musical Chairs and more! Go to cutie Danielle Vicky's party!_

_If your raffle ticket is chosen, you get to kiss Sharpay Evans at her Fun in the Sun beach party!_

_Dear Chad,_

_Keep it grooving! I hear you and Taylor McKessie are no longer an item. Good choice; she was way too dorky for you. And ugly…_

_I've got several girlfriends I could hook you up with, just to ease the pain; shoulders to cry on, all that crap, but you know what I'm talking about, right? ;)_

_In any case, here're the pictures of a couple labeled Girl A, Girl B, Girl C, so on, so forth…_

_You just drop a note saying which letter you prefer, and I'll hook you up. All the girls are drooling except for me, because you know I have my eye set on T.B._

_Go Swinging Singles, _

_Sharpay Evans_

With a groan of disgust, he tore everything up and dumped it in a trash can. Girl A, Girl B, Girl C… what kind of crap was –

"Hi, Chad," a familiarly flirty voice purred as a couple of manicured fingers began massaging his shoulders.

He spun around. "Sharpay, what are you trying to do? I'm still thinking about Ga – I mean…" he felt his face grow red. "Gaga!" he finished wildly.

Sharpay cocked her head curiously. "Excuse me?"

"I'm still gaga for Taylor," he improvised.

"Then why'd you break up with her?" Sharpay pouted. "You've got so many girls hopeful…"

"Because it wasn't working out. I just have someone else on my mind."

"Then why did you just say you're gaga for Taylor?" Sharpay rolled her eyes. "You cute athletes. You're so… wishy-washy." She giggled at her new word and whirled around, flipping her air.

Chad watched her stalk off. Wishy-washy?

Unknown to Chad, Gabi and Troy witnessed the entire scene with Sharpay, though they couldn't hear a word spoken between the two. "He looks really miserable," Troy moaned. "Why is he acting like such a jerk? I mean, it's sooo clear he still wants a girlfriend, and who else could he want besides Taylor?"

Gabi shook her head miserably. "I don't get it. Taylor liked him a lot, and I thought they made such a great couple."

"They did!" Troy spat with surprising ferocity. "He's such a dork!"

Gabi shrugged and leaned against the wall. "What are we going to do, Troy? We have to fix this."  
Troy was still watching Chad. "OK, he's gone. It's safe for me to go to my locker."

Gabriella followed Troy to his locker and watched as he stashed his books in it. Once he was finished, he turned on her. "So, because you're stuck on this whole '_violence is the last resort_' crap, choking the answer to his doofy problems out of Chad isn't an option?"

Gabi shook her head, not even smiling. "You should see Taylor. I found her crying in the girls' bathroom today, and I have never seen her like that! She was pretty much delirious."

Troy looked at his shoes. "We're really lucky to have this kind of relationship, Gab."

"Ooh, that's a big help," she scoffed, and then when she looked at him she smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Troy. I know how lucky we are."

He kissed the top of her head. "Why don't we clear all of this Chad-Taylor junk out of our heads for a little while? Let's go on a spontaneous date!"  
Gabi opened her mouth to protest, but he picked her up and hauled her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. "I'm taking you hostage, Miss Montez!" he cackled evilly, carrying her out of the school amidst her mixed laughs and demands to be let down.

While Troy was transporting Gabi all the way back to the park in which they'd shared their first kiss, Chad was sitting at his homework desk very close to tears. Harriet had chosen that exact day to refuse to answer either of her phone numbers, and he knew it was out of boundary to ask his parents for advice.

With a careless sort of grunt, he stood up and strode over to his bed, falling onto it. "I cannot believe this," he said into his pillow.

Because he did not wish to think about anything having to do with the Wildcat drama, he started thinking about the movie he had grudgingly watched with Harry on the first night she was back from college. It was some sort of sappy romance about a boy who broke a girl's heart and then won her back with a simple letter written from the "bottom of his heart". Harry had cried and called him a true romantic. Chad laughed and called him a "city slicker".

A letter…

A letter…

Chad sat straight up and, in doing so, bounced himself so high he hit his head painfully on the ceiling.

Alternating between curses and praising himself on his own romantic brilliance, he made his way back to the desk and pulled out his cleanest sheet of notebook paper and the only pen he had without gum or melted chocolate on it.

_Dear Gabriella……_

Gabi and Troy stood on her porch steps, holding each other's hands and gazing into each other's starry eyes. "It's such a great night," Troy whispered. He was blushing crazily, but in the darkness Gabi couldn't see it.

She was blushing, too. They had never really had a real porch-kissing scene due to a series of mishaps, and here they were…

"This is classic," she said in a simpering voice that she immediately reprimanded herself on. She was in love, not Sharpay.

"Yeah, it is." He sounded really nervous, almost as nervous as he had before their first kiss.

Gabi leaned forward a little, so their noses were touching again, just like the last time…

"GABRIELLA!" Taylor's shriek echoed up and down the empty street as she came running towards them. Gabi pulled away just as her lips had barely touched Troy's. "What is it, Tay?"

Taylor looked exhilarated, her face flushed from the wind having blown on it as she ran.

"Gabi, Gabi, Chad just called me!" she shrieked, grabbing hold of Gabi's shoulders and jumping up and down, completely ignoring Troy. "Guess what? He says he was just going through a strange phase and he's really sorry and he wants me to know he made a big mistake and wants to make it right! I have Chad again! I HAVE CHAD AGAIN!"

"Jeepers," Troy said, "Girls can sure scream loud."  
Gabi hit him squarely in the chest without even looking to aim. "Shut up, Troy," she said distractedly. "So Chad's back to normal? Nothing's wrong and the Wildcat Order is restored again?"  
Tay nodded. "I guess it's just the whole 'teenage phase' thing. Maybe his phase is being all weird and EMO. But it's good now; because he's being so sweet… he messengered a couple roses to my door! Isn't that cute, Gab?"

Gabi nodded excitedly and turned to Troy. "Hear that? I guess Mr. Danforth's case is closed!"

Taylor seemed to finally realize that Troy was standing there. "Oh, sorry. Were you guys… doing something?" she giggled embarrassedly.

"Nothing important." Gabi kissed both of Taylor's cheeks. "So… impromptu baseball game this Saturday afternoon?"  
"Sure!" Taylor ran away towards her own house a couple blocks down. "Bye, Gabi!" she shouted over her shoulder as she ran.

'"Impromptu basketball game?' But you're actually planning it. Does Freaky Math Girl not know the meaning of 'impromptu'?" Troy said teasingly.

Gabi slapped him again. "Shut up, idiot. It's not really impromptu; we just call it that because planned baseball games are for geeks."

"Who says you're not a geek?"

They were standing really close to each other again; she had taken a big step forward after Tay had left.

He put his arms around his waist, one hand snaking up into her hair, and they leaned forward again to erase the interruption from history –

"Gabi, I almost forgot!" Taylor was back again, breathless, holding out a slightly shaking hand that was clutching a piece of stationery.

"What is it?" Gabi looked a bit annoyed.

"Sorry." Taylor giggled again.

"Just hurry up," Gabi said. It was pretty clear she wanted the kiss just as much as Troy did.

"It's from Chad. I didn't read it, I swear, but he said to give it to you in confidence. Bye!" Taylor fled again.

Gabi shoved the letter roughly into her pocket and put her arms back around Troy's waist; he did the same. "OK, let's go," she whispered. "But first, you need to say sorry for calling me a geek."

"I won't. I like geeks," he said so softly she could barely hear him, and then they really were kissing, and it was like she was floating on –

"CURFEW!" Ms. Montez appeared in the doorway, having flung the door open so suddenly neither had time to gather their thoughts.  
Troy jumped backwards and fell over the porch, doing a perfect backwards somersault into the grass. "Bye, Gabi!" he said, eyeing Ms. Montez's wide-eyed expression fearfully as he ran away.

Gabi giggled, unable to contain her euphoria. Seeing how happy her daughter was, Ms. Montez's stern facial expression softened. "Not again, okay, _mija,_ or there will be consequences," she said gently. "It's dangerous out here so late at night."

"Troy can protect me," Gabi said, hugging herself, relishing in the burn of his touch that still lingered.

"_Mija, _boys are not as wonderful as you think." Ms. Montez gripped her daughter's wrist and pulled her inside. "They aren't invincible or perfect, any more than you are."

"This one is," Gabi whispered lovingly into her mother's ear, and then bounded up into her room before Ms. Montez could reply.

Up in her room, Gabi was consumed with joy as she felt Troy holding her again. Every time they kissed she had fireworks, but that one had been even sweeter, perhaps because they'd still managed to squeeze it in despite all the interruptions. She almost called Troy, but decided to leave the moment hanging, suspended, like a wonderful cloud nine. As she pulled her sweater off and flung it carelessly onto the coat rack in the corner of her room, Chad's letter flew out of the pocket and slid, unnoticed, underneath Gabi's bed.


	7. 7 FROM, CHAD

LOVE, CHAD

Chad could not have put his excitement into words for a million bucks the morning after he'd had Tay deliver the note to Gabi. It was a decisive choice. If she despised him, she would say no once and for all. The prospect of closure was both exhilarating and frightening. Gabriella Montez had more class than to tell anyone about the note if she didn't respond to Chad's feelings, which meant he had nothing to fear – if she rejected him, he still had Tay to fall back on. If she didn't, Troy had always said Taylor was a cute girl.

He imagined himself kissing Gabi in parks instead of Troy, standing on her porch embracing, smelling her flowery perfume, feeling her silky hair. He could practically have fainted from joy when he saw Gabi coming in alone, sans Troy, completely free. He hid behind his locker door until she came and playfully rapped on it. She was smiling, such a good sign, grinning, actually, her cheeks rosy and her eyes lively. He couldn't wait to hear how she was going to phrase her acceptance of his love. Would she say something about her long-living desire, her covert dreams…?

But Gabriella did not pronounce undying love to Chad as students began to filter in through the doors and towards their lockers. Instead, she said brightly, "It's so great that you and Taylor are back together, Chad!" she kissed his forehead and went away, leaving behind a cloud of perfume.

Chad was frozen; he felt his eyes well up and impatiently brushed away sissy tears. She had rejected him. She had totally ignored his note, acted like he didn't exist, completely flicked him off and…

The bell rang, startling him. He grabbed all of his books and fled down the hall, ignoring the laughter around him, sure that the laughter was directed at him…

Gabriella Montez had rejected him. He no longer had any hope, any chance, of ever being with her…

Chad was still puzzlingly grumpy after he got back with Tay. He acted the same, but nobody seemed willing to notice; everyone was too busy pretending that it was all over, it had never happened, everything was perfectly normal. They were too happy that things had gotten set back in their place to notice that Chad was just as unhappy as he'd been before breaking up with Taylor.

She was acting irritatingly clingy, which bugged the heck out of him, but he didn't say anything; he was too busy gazing at Gabi as she lapped her affections on Troy and he responded in kind. He thought he would, but he ended up not resenting Troy. It wasn't his fault; if Chad had Gabi, he'd hang on to her just as tightly, maybe even more.

He had figured by then his frustration would never mend. He would always wonder what Gabi had thought of the note. Well, obviously she'd hated it because she hadn't even acknowledged it. But what if she had? Would she have understood where he was coming from?

He almost broke up with Tay several times. They were barely even dating anymore; he no longer had any romanticism left in his weary heart. He contributed their lack of dates to the fact that he had no car. He decided that, come summer, he would get a job and pretend to be saving up for the car, but never really actually buy it. It was a clever carry-on ruse that he was pretty sure had Tay convinced. He instead took her to fifteen-minute to-go coffees at the Jolt and a bunch of other very unromantic things that seemed to satisfy her. She seemed to be perfectly happy just to be back with him.

After a while, Chad decided on putting on an act. Around everyone else he acted like Taylor was his one true love, cozying up to her, laughing with her, treating her like a princess. She seemed very pleased with his newfound "love". Everyone settled back to normalcy; Chad watched with increasing bitterness. Nobody could ever know except for Gabi, and her in her love for Troy had completely and totally let go of it, acted like it had never happened, like she didn't know his feelings, didn't know about the aching passion in his very soul.

He scared himself with his overly sappy thoughts, terrified himself with his outpourings of sudden emotion, which came like seizures – sadness, anger, a bunch of extremes that terrified him. Luckily, nobody witnessed him at his saddest or angriest or sappiest; he was usually safely holed up in his bedroom, where he wrote a thousand more letters to Gabi, none of which he sent.

School drew to a close, but it flew by for him almost like a couple of days. As the seven weeks came speeding up, so did the end-of-school dance, to which Chad, obviously, took Taylor. They barely danced; she danced more with some anonymous football teamster than she did with Chad, who sulked in a corner drinking too much punch. By the end of the night, Chad had decided to break up with Tay at the start of the next school year unless by some strange miracle, during the summer he came to realize he really did love her.

Which he didn't think was going to happen.

And that was how Chad Danforth dealt with his unexpected and undesired crush, but I guess you need to know the rest of the story to fully understand how it all ended and how it came to the Lava Springs Country Club. So read the next chapter…


	8. 8 THE END

**TWO MONTHS LATER**

_"Mija, _your room is a mess!" Gabi's mother called from downstairs. "Clean it up!"

Gabriella groaned, rolling off her bed to approach the mess of pens and paper on her desk. "Great. Summer cleaning. Fun."

"Yes, it is!" Ms. Montez shouted. "I hate going into your room so messy. So, yeah, it's fun for me!"

Gabi discarded the teen fashion magazine she'd been reading into the bin of recyclable materials that she kept, laboring under the notion that one day she'd pluck up the goodwill to actually drive to the recycling center and dump it all.

Troy's love letters and printed emails were scattered everywhere. She stacked them up and stapled them, storing them in her hope chest. The rest – badly graded homework, extra-credit essays that had never been completed, etc. – were thrown into the recycling bin or the trashcan.

She stuffed her laundry into the bin and hid it in her closet, blew all the dust off the window sills and the surface of her barely-touched second nightstand, and wiped the thick blanket of debris off of her pictures.

"All done!" she said in as chipper a voice as she could manage.

"Don't forget under your bed!" Ms. Montez yelled. "I saw a colony of dust bunnies last time I looked down there, missy!"

With a moan that sounded scarily like her bedsprings when harboring too much weight, she flopped onto the floor and waved her hand around in the dark, enclosed space, brushing away the dust bunnies and random detritus. As she demolished the last bunny, her hand felt something textured like stationery, which she pulled out and immediately recognized. It was the letter from Chad, forgotten in the wake of her perfect kiss with Troy on the evening that seemed like such a long time ago.

As Gabi read, she started crying, because she knew she had missed her chance to give Chad the closure of which he asked. She was not sad because she would not ever be able to be with him, because Gabi desired more than anything to stick with Troy, but she regretted having hurt Chad's feelings, have let down his expectations.

Chad's biggest mistake lay in his act. Gabi thought he had been happy with Taylor for too long to disturb him and throw everything into bits once again, because he had finally gotten over it…

Or so she thought.

_Dear Gabriella,_

_I know that when this letter reaches you, you'll have already discovered that Taylor and I are dating again. But, Gabi, you need to know something – I am not dating Taylor McKessie because I love her or even vaguely like her. I am back with her again because I know it's the right thing to do. But you can make me do something that I really WANT to do instead of HAVE to, and that's listening to me and giving me what I've wanted for so long._

_It's you, Gabi. It's you who I wanted, the girl who I spoke of when I talked about how I had my eyes on someone else. Hearing you tell me that I should get back with Tay, seeing the both of you (and Troy) so upset made me realize that Tay deserves me, unless I can get what I think I deserve and so do you._

_Gabriella, will you be my girlfriend? I have watched you with Troy and seen you happy with him, but if you could take a chance with me… I understand if you don't, but I think you have to know, or I will never be able to speak to you again with a clean conscience._

_I love you more than anybody I've ever loved before, a love that struck me with as much shock as it must to you. It began slowly but suddenly it was there and powerful, and I think that's the way true love is supposed to be, isn't it? _

_It makes me so excited, and it makes me think I can be happy again, I can feel like I did before I realized that I was with the wrong girl. If you don't feel the same way about me, forget it, no hard feelings. Tay and I are very happy together was friends, and that's what we'll be as we grow up together. We aren't actually dating. I don't think even Taylor expects me to get through to her like Troy does to you, and you do to Troy. _

_And like you do to me._

_Rejection won't hurt me as much as not knowing what we could have together. If your answer is 'nothing', so be it, but I know, and that makes me so happy. Closure is the best thing. _

_So, Gabi, if you love me even half as much as I love you – even a smidge at all – then please, please, take a chance and throw everything away like I am for you, and watch me as I make you happier than you've ever been before. _

_Please reply by any kind of communication soon. _

_Love to Gabi_

_From Chad _

**THE END  
**

Gabriella, Troy, Chad, and Taylor, all, as you know, joined the Wildcats in positions at the Lava Springs Country Club.

Taylor never discovered the reason behind Chad's so called 'temporary bout' of odd behavior. In fact, nobody besides Chad or Gabi ever knew.

You all know the story about Gabi and Troy's little "issue" at the Country Club, but believe it or not, Chad never wanted to step in and give Gabi some moral support – and perhaps, in doing so, win her loving graces – because he saw how hurt Gabi was and he loved her too much to be insensitive and selfish.

**Thanks everyone for reading my first ever FanFic! I hope you all enjoyed… please review what you think about the ending!**

**Sorry I know it kind of sounds a little rushed, but I really couldn't think of anything better to end it with, I'm working on another story and I want to focus more on that one, so I just wanted to close this one up neatly and quickly. **


End file.
